He had a sister, Lucy, who later married Charles Lewis Mathews,[1] and a brother, Eleazer, who built the first hotel in Savannah, Georgia.

During his congressional service, Early was one of the House managers (prosecutors) in the impeachment trials of John Pickering, New Hampshire United States District Court judge, in January 1804, and Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, in December of that year.

He served one term, through 1815, during which he was instrumental in committing funds on several occasions from the state treasury to help raise and supply additional troops from Georgia to the American military forces during the latter half of the War of 1812.

During his term in the Georgia Senate, Peter Early died on August 15, 1817, at his summer home near Scull Shoals in Greene County.

He was buried on the west bank of the Oconee River near his Fontenoy Plantation home,[4] with a simple monument to mark his grave.