William Peachy, Colonel and later Lieutenant-General (c. 1763–1838): A Keswick resident, MP for Yarmouth (1797–1802) and Taunton (1826–30). An officer in the Wiltshire militia and a convivial host at his home in Keswick and later on Derwent Isle, Derwentwater. Southey was very fond of Peachy’s wife, Emma Frances Charter, for whom he wrote a poetic epitaph when she died in 1809. His third daughter, Emma (February 1808–May 1809), was named after her. Others in the Peachy circle who visited the Lakes were his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charter and her uncle Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815) and his family, and Peachy’s second wife, a widow, Mrs James Henry.

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