Samuel Peach (1725–1790) was a London merchant and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1775 to 1776. Peach was the son of John Peach of Chalford, Gloucestershire and his wife Sarah Small of Minchinhampton. He became a silk merchant in London, and also became a partner in the banking firm of Peach, Fowler and Co. He married Christina Cox, daughter of Howard Cox of Bristol and Virginia on 9 December 1756. From 1773 to 1774 he was a Director of the East India Company. His brother-in-law was the famous astronomer

James Bradley James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the ...

. In December 1774 there was a vacant Parliamentary seat at

Cricklade Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227. History Cricklade ...

and Peach stood at the by-election on the interest of Arnold Nesbitt. The process then dragged on for over a year, mainly due to the partiality of the returning officer towards Peach. At the first by-election the returning officer closed the poll early and sent in a double return. The election was declared void by the House of Commons. At the second by-election in February 1775 the returning officer disqualified 108 of his opponent's votes. Peach was initially returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

on 4 March 1775 but there was a petition and he was unseated on 19 February 1776. Peach was a Director of the East India Company again from 1776 to 1779. In 1777, he was involved in the prosecution of Dr. Dodd, who was subsequently hanged for forgery. In 1780, Peach contested Hindon but was defeated. He was Director of the East India Company in 1781, but then went bankrupt and was disqualified. He died on 14 December 1790. Peach had a cousin, also Samuel Peach, a merchant of Bristol whose daughter married

Henry Cruger Henry Cruger Jr. (November 22, 1739April 24, 1827) was an American and British merchant at the time of the American Revolution. He has a unique distinction of having been elected to both the Parliament of Great Britain (MP, 1774–1780, 1784– ...

, MP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peach, Samuel 1725 births 1790 deaths British merchants British bankers Directors of the British East India Company Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1774–1780