Peek, Samuel

1807 - 1857  (49 years)

• Name	Peek, Samuel
  Born	25 Aug 1807	Devon, West Alvington
  Gender	Male
  Died	20 Aug 1857	Australia, off Sydney Heads
  Person ID	I175	Peek Genealogy
  Last Modified	5 Feb 2015

  
  

  Father	Peek, Samuel,   b. 9 Mar 1785, Devon, Loddiswell ,   d. 26 Dec 1860, Kingsbridge District, Devon  (Age 75 years)
  Mother	Patey, Hannah,   b. 1786, Devon, West Alvington ,   d. Q3 1843, Gloucestershire, Cheltenham  (Age 57 years)
  Married	25 Mar 1807	Devon, Dodbrook   [1]
  Census	1841	High Street, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire   [2]
  Family ID	F56	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Webb, Caroline,   b. 25 Dec 1809, Gloucestershire, Gloucester, St Michael ,   d. 20 Aug 1857, Australia, off Sydney Heads  (Age 47 years)
  Married	25 Dec 1831	Gloucestershire, Gloucester
  Last Modified	5 Feb 2015
  Family ID	F57	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Eldest child of Samuel Peek (1785-1860) of Kingsbridge, Devon. Living in Gloucester in 1831 and married there on 25 December 1831 to Caroline Webb, eldest daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Webb of Gloucester. Emigrated to Sydney, N.S.W., and founded, with a partner, the business of S. Peek & Co., of 424 George Street and 295 Pitt Street, Sydney. This became one of the largest firms of importers and dealers in the city, and, according to "The Sydney Morning Herald", Mr and Mrs S. Peek were two of the best known colonists and "Pioneer Peeks". Samuel Peek's brother Richard also worked with S. Peek & Co. Samuel Peek lived at Gosford, N.S.W., a town some fifty miles north of Sydney, where he owned five hundred acres of what is now the best residential area in the district. He owned a steamer which plied between Gosford and Sydney. The promontory where Samuel Peek and his wife lived is now known as Peek's Point, and the town of Gosford has a Caroline Street and a Webb Street, both named after Samuel Peek's wife nâee Caroline Webb. Sometime before 1857 Samuel and Caroline Peek returned to London, as he is described in his will made 19 May 1857 as "now of 162 New Bond Street, Piccadilly in the county of Middlesex, Esq., and formerly of Sydney, N.S.W." Soon after making his will, however, he and his wife set out again for Sydney. After an eleven-week voyage from England the sailing ship "Dunbar", in which they were travelling, was wrecked against the cliffs off Sydney Heads as it tried to enter the harbour in a fierce storm near midnight on 20 August 1857. Of the 63 passengers and 59 crew only one, a young seaman, was saved when he was washed ashore. The disaster, the best-known of all the shipwrecks to have occurred off Sydney, created a great sensation at the time, and the wrecking of the "Dunbar" has become part of the early history of New South Wales. Attempts are now being made to save what remains of the wrecked ship (see "The Sydney Morning Herald" of 7 June 1980). Samuel and Caroline Peek had no children, and in his will (proved in London December 1857) Samuel Peek left a large sum of money in trust to pay for the education in England of his nephew, Harry Hazelwood Peek, the only son of his brother James Peek, who was also head of a successful business in Sydney.

  
  

• Sources

  [S285] Dodbrook Parish, Dodbrook Parish, (Devon Family History Society) (Reliability: 2). [S163] 1841 Census, Registrar Cheltenham, (Ancestry.co.uk), ED 14, F 23, p 3 (Reliability: 2).