Northamptonshire. In the same year he married Anne, daughter of Edward Curtis of Stamford, and shortly afterwards, in 1721, gave the first indication of his lifelong devotion to antiquarian studies by issuing proposals for printing the history and antiquities of his native town. In 1723 he obtained by purchase from the patron, Samuel Lowe, the advowson of the rectory of Goadby-Marwood in Leicestershire. He wrote to Browne Willis that Bishop Gibson confirmed his appointment within one hour of his translation from the see of Lincoln to that of London. Peck was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 9 March 1732. In January 1738 he obtained by the favour of Bishop Reynolds the prebendal stall of Marston St. Laurence in Lincoln Cathedral. He held this prebend, which had previously been held by White Kennett, until his death on 9 July 1743. The latter portion of his life was wholly devoted to antiquarian pursuits. He was buried just within the south door of Goadby church, where a Latin inscription, modelled upon that of Robert Burton, describes him as ‘notus nimis omnibus, ignotus sibi.’ He left two sons—Francis (1720–1749), rector of Gunby, Lincolnshire; and Thomas, who died young—and one daughter, Anne, born in 1730, who married John Smalley, a farmer and grazier of Stroxton. Peck's widow retired to Harlaxton in Lincolnshire, where she died about 1758. In this year Peck's books were sold by auction (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 655).
At the time of his death Peck had in contemplation no less than nine different works, several of which were in an advanced stage of preparation (see below). He had a remarkable faculty for accumulating out-of-the-way facts, which is best exhibited in his well-known ‘Desiderata Curiosa,’ but his talent for arrangement and generalisation was less conspicuous. His researches were mainly confined to the seventeenth century, but were not sufficiently concentrated to render him an expert in dealing with the value of evidence or any other subjects of controversy. He was, however, commendably free from political bias. Some of his literary peculiarities are on the whole fairly characterised by William Cole, who writes of Peck: ‘Had he lived longer we might have had many more curious peices of antiquity, which he seems to have been in possession of; but the chief and great failing of this gentleman seemed to be an eager desire to publish as little in one volume as he could, in order to eke out his collections. His “Desiderata Curiosa” is full of curious things, but he has so disjointed, mangled, and new-sentenced all of them, and what with detached books, chapters, and heads of the chapters, that, in endeavouring to be more than ordinarily clear, he has become many times quite the reverse’ (Cole, Collections, Addit. MS. 5833, f. 176). A portrait of the antiquary in 1735, engraved by J. Faber after J. Highmore, is prefixed to his ‘Cromwell’ (1740). Another portrait, drawn by B. Collins ad vivum in 1731, is prefixed to the 1779 edition of the ‘Desiderata.’
The following is a list of Peck's chief works, all of which were printed at his own charge, and for which he solicited orders and subscribers at the end of several of his smaller tracts: 1. ‘Tὸ Ὕψoς Ἅγιον, or an Exercise on the Creation, and a Hymn to the Creator of the World; written in the express words of the Sacred Text, as an attempt to show the Beauty and Sublimity of Holy Scripture,’ 1716, 8vo. 2. ‘Sighs upon the never enough lamented Death of Queen Anne,’ in imitation of Milton (blank verse), 1719, 4to. Prefixed is a representation of Queen Anne ascending from the earth with the support of angels and cherubs; and appended to the main poem are three minor pieces. At the end of this work he solicits assistance for a ‘History of the Two Last Months of King Charles I,’ which never appeared. 3. ‘Academia Tertia Anglicana; or the Antiquarian Annals of Stamford in Lincoln, Rutland, and Northampton shires; containing the History of the University, Monasteries, Gilds, Churches, Chapels, Hospitals, and Schools there,’ 1727, 4to. This elaborate work was dedicated to John, duke of Rutland, and in it is incorporated the substance of a previous tract by Peck upon ‘The History of the Stamford Bull-running.’ 4. ‘Desiderata Curiosa, or a Collection of Divers Scarce and Curious Pieces, relating chiefly to matters of English History; consisting of choice Tracts, Memoirs, Letters, Wills, Epitaphs,’ &c., 1732, fol. This volume, to which the author contributed two original papers—one on the ancient divisions of the day and night, the other a description of Burghley House—was dedicated to Lord William Manners; and it was followed in 1735 by a second volume dedicated to Bishop Reynolds. Only two hundred and fifty copies of these volumes having been printed, they soon became scarce, and were reprinted in one volume in 1779, 4to, with a scanty memoir of Peck by Thomas Evans. 5. ‘A Complete Catalogue of all the Discourses written both for and against Popery in the time of King James II; containing in the whole an account of 457 books and pamphlets … with an alphabetical list of the
