[1] Woodruffe-Peacock, always known by his middle name of Adrian, was born at Bottesford Manor, north Lincolnshire, on 23 July 1858, the son of Edward Peacock (1831–1915), farmer, antiquarian, historian, and author, and his wife, Lucy Ann Wetherell (1823–1887).

[1] He then received private tuition in Lincolnshire until April 1877, when he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge, to study mathematics, classics, science, and natural history.

[2] He sat for the degree examination at Easter 1881, but "scratched", thinking that he had failed his Latin paper and choosing to make arrangements to leave before receiving the results.

This was a poor, sparsely populated parish; since Woodruffe-Peacock had to visit his widely scattered parishioners on foot, he became by inclination and necessity a tremendous walker, which afforded him the opportunity to make regular observations and to record the natural changes occurring over a limited area.

[5] As the result of "half a dozen visits" to a Lincolnshire beck during a dry summer when the water was low, he noted over 58 species growing, coming from the seeds he had dispersed by the stream.

[7] By this point Woodruffe-Peacock had been working on a detailed study, Rock-soil flora of Lincolnshire, for many years, and Tansley, impressed, offered to contribute £300 towards its publication.

[7] Owing to poor health, Woodruffe-Peacock was never able to make the necessary revisions and only a small section was ever published, the rest of the manuscript passing into the archives of Cambridge University Library.