his, including copies of Milton's ‘Poems’ and transcripts of ‘Robin Hood Ballads,’ comprise Addit. MSS. 28637, 28638.
[Cole's Athenæ Cantabrigienses; Graduati Cantabrigienses, p. 134; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 184; Gent. Mag. 1743, p. 443; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, xxiv. 240; Nichols's Hist. of Leicestershire, preface; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. i. 507 (a valuable memoir, on which all subsequent lives are based), ii. 543, 604, iv. 553, vi. 159, 198, 309–453, viii. 573, 690, ix. 191; Mem. of Thomas Hollis (1780), pp. 513, 526, 531; Bibl. Topogr. Britannica, ii. 50; Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 127; Hearne's Preface to Fordun's Scotichronicon; Chambers's Book of Days; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica (1812), i. 564; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature; Didot's Nouvelle Biographie Générale; English Cyclopædia; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
PECK, JAMES (1773–1810?), musician, music engraver, and publisher, is stated to have been born in London in 1773 (Fétis), and would seem to be a member of a family of printers and booksellers residing at York and Hull. A musician named Peck died at Bath on 3 Feb. 1784, but his relationship with James cannot be traced. James composed 1. ‘Kisses,’ a glee for three voices, published by Preston about 1798. It was followed by 2. ‘Love and sparkling Wine,’ and 3. ‘Hail, Britannia,’ printed by himself at Westmorland Buildings about 1799. Some of his other publications were: 4. ‘Two hundred and fifty Psalm-tunes,’ in three parts, 1798. 5. ‘Peck's Collection of Hymn-tunes, Fugues, and Odes,’ chiefly original, in three and four parts, 1799. 6. ‘Peck's Miscellaneous Collection of Sacred Music’ … original and selected hymn-tunes and odes, printed at Westmorland Buildings, and (book iii.) at Newgate Street, 1809. 7. ‘Vocal Preceptor.’ 8. ‘Flute Preceptor.’ 9. ‘Advice to a young composer,’ 1810. 10. ‘Soft be the gently breathing notes,’ a hymn for two or three voices, with accompaniment for two flutes and pianoforte,’ 1810? 11. ‘Sacred Gleanings, or Hymn-tunes adapted for two flutes.’ 12. ‘Beauties of Sacred Harmony, or Vocalist's Pocket-book,’ 1824. 13. ‘Peck's Pocket Arrangement of Psalm and Hymn-tunes,’ 3 vols., 1833. The later works were probably published by John Peck, the organist at St. Faith's, and James Peck the younger.
[Gent. Mag. 1784 p. 152, 1798 p. 1149, 1801 p. 1210; Brown's Dict. of Musicians, p. 466; Peck's publications.]
PECKARD, PETER, D.D. (1718?–1797), whig divine, son of the Rev. John Peckard of Welbourn, Lincolnshire, matriculated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 20 July 1734, when aged 16, and was admitted on 9 Oct. He graduated B.A. 1738, M.A. March 1741–2, and became scholaris, or probationary fellow, in 1744 (Fowler, Corpus Christi Coll. p. 405). After having been ordained in the English church, he seems to have become a chaplain in the army, to have married about 1752, and to have settled for a time at Huntingdon. Probably through local influence he was appointed in 1760 to the rectory of Fletton and the vicarage of Yaxley, both near Peterborough. A dispensation for the holding of these two livings at the same time was requisite, and it was obtained with great difficulty from Secker, then archbishop of Canterbury. Peckard was considered heterodox ‘upon the question concerning an intermediate or separate state of conscious existence between death and the resurrection,’ and his examination was several times adjourned. He obtained his dispensation at last, but only after he had signed four articles to some extent modifying his views, and it was given at a date when the second benefice was within a day or two of lapsing. His own narrative of these proceedings and the Latin essays which he wrote for the archbishop are in Archdeacon Blackburne's ‘Works’ (vol. i. pp. xciv–cvii). The conclusion of Bishop Law was ‘Peter Peckard has escaped out of Lollard's tower with the loss of his tail.’
In 1766 Peckard became chaplain to the first troop of grenadier guards, and served with it in Germany. He was at that time noted as a man of convivial tastes, but in after years he practised the strictest economy. The rectory of Fletton was held by him until his death, but he vacated the vicarage of Yaxley in 1777. He was prebendary of Clifton in Lincoln Cathedral from 9 May 1774, and of Rampton in Southwell Minster from 23 Oct. 1777 to his death. He was also appointed in 1777, under dispensation, to the rectory of Tansor in Northamptonshire, and from 1793 to 1797 he retained the rectory of Abbots' Ripton, near Huntingdon.
In 1781 he was appointed to the mastership of Magdalene College, Cambridge, by Sir John Griffin Griffin, afterwards Lord Howard de Walden, who had the right of presentation, as owner of the estate of Audley End. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1782, appointed vice-chancellor in 1784, and created D.D. per literas regias in 1785. In April 1792 he was advanced by the crown to the deanery of Peterborough, and it is recorded, as a crowning proof of his parsimony, that he only gave one annual dinner to his chapter. He built a new parsonage-house at Fletton, and was permitted by the patron, Lord Carysfort, to nominate his successor to the benefice. Peckard died on 8 Dec. 1797, and was buried
