Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Peacock, Lucy
PEACOCK, LUCY (fl. 1815), bookseller and author, kept a shop in Oxford Street, and wrote tales for children, for the most part anonymously. Among the earliest of these were ‘The Adventures of the Six Princesses of Babylon in their Travels to the Temple of Virtue: an allegory’ (1785; 3rd edit. 1790), and ‘The Rambles of Fancy, or Moral and Interesting Tales’ (2 vols., 1786). In the following years she contributed to the ‘Juvenile Magazine’ similar tales, which were reissued in ‘Friendly Labours, or Tales and Dramas for the Amusement and Instruction of Youth’ (Brentford, 1815). Other of her publications were: ‘The Knight of the Rose’ (1793; 2nd edit. 1807); ‘The Visit for a Week’ (1794; 7th edit. 1812), which was translated into French in 1817 by J. E. Le Febvre; ‘Emily, or the Test of Sincerity’ (1816); and ‘The Little Emigrant: a Tale’ (4th edit. 1820).
Miss Peacock also translated from the French ‘Ambrose and Eleanor, or the Adventures of Two Children deserted on an Uninhabited Island’ (1796, 1812, by R. and L. Peacock), an adaptation of ‘Fanfan et Lolotte;’ Veyssière de la Croze's ‘Grammaire Historique’ (1802), and ‘Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire Universelle’ (1807).
[Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, 1798; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]