Ephraim Peabody (March 22, 1807 – November 28, 1856) was an American Unitarian clergyman, preacher, and philanthropist who was one of the founders of the Provident Institution for Savings in Boston.

Here he began a long association with Louisville minister James Freeman Clarke with whom he started a Unitarian periodical The Western Messanger.

[1] In the summer of 1835, while visiting Boston, Massachusetts, Peabody suffered a lung hemorrhage due to tuberculosis and the death of his first son.

A parishioner of Peabody's at King's Chapel said:[2][3] In one respect he was the most remarkable man it has been my fortune to meet, and that was in the union of a childlike simplicity with a singular knowledge of men.

All shams, all pretence, all mere outside coverings, seemed to fall at once before his gentle eye; and though his opinions were announced with great caution, and he always took the most lenient view possible, yet it was clear he understood perfectly well the real character of those whom he knew.

[2] While serving at King's Chapel, Peabody happened to marry famous Boston portrait-painter William Morris Hunt to Louise Perkins in 1855.

Peabody's last public appearance was later that year in 1855 where he gave a memorial sermon at his friend Judge Charles Jackson's funeral.