James Peacock (architect)

He practised in London and wrote on architecture and social problems, his main project being to find employment for the destitute.

[1] Peacock was also interested in economic and social problems, and his treatises on these subjects, small as they are, are, in the estimation of the Dictionary of National Biography, more remarkable than his architectural works.

[1] His Outlines of a Scheme for the General Relief, Instruction, Employment, and Maintenance of the Poor was published in 1777, and is described by Peacock as "an imperfect and crude performance".

All of these tracts set forth, with various modifications, Peacock's main project of "giving protection and suitable incitement, encouragement, and employ to every class of the destitute, ignorant, and idle poor who shall be healthy, able to work, and willing to conform … to such … regulations as the company shall enact, and which are intended to be of mutual benefit and advantage to the company and the workpeople, and eventually so to society at large".

Peacock asserts that "very considerable use has been made of the original thoughts" in his two earlier pamphlets by several writers, and refers to the first two reports of the Philanthropic Society, which was a flourishing and important institution.