I have variously heard from several different branches that "two brothers" and "three brothers" from England were the original settlers, but personally, I do not believe this, for a search for the Peavey ancestry always goes back to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the first mention of the family is one Edward Peavey; whose name first appears in the old town records in 1691.

In a list of names of Portsmouth men (1691) who pledged for the support of a prospective minister for the Puritan Parish, (Rev. John Cotton)., the name of Edward Peavey appears as pledging 1s. 8d. That
he was not in the city before this year is probable from the fact that his name does not appear on any previous lists. There was a "Powder List" in 1690 and still another list in 1688. and his name is not among them. A few papers concerning Edward in the very interest in the New Hampshire archives of the New Hampshire Historical Society Building in Concord, New Hampshire, show that Edward spelled his name Peve, although the copyist spells it Pevey in the Portsmouth town book referred to.

I have not had time to investigate the English derivation of the family, but I may say that Somerset House, (the official registry office for families and heraldry in London) thinks that