Wilder Peter

Wild Peter enticed and trapped

In 1724, near the German town of Hamelin, a boy, described as a naked brownish black-haired creature, was seen running up and down in the fields. The boy was enticed into town, and once there immediately became a subject of great interest. He behaved like a trapped wild animal, eating birds and vegetables raw, and when threatened, he sat on his haunches or on all-fours looking for opportunities to escape.

Wild Peter moves to England

Wild Peter was soon made the possession of King George I of England, where he lived the rest of his life. During his life Peter never learned to talk, showed a complete indifference to money or sex, and was never seen laughing. However he loved music, could be taught a number of menial tasks, and when he once got lost, he found his own way back home. Peter died in Hertfordshire (England) in 1785.

Was Wild Peter really a feral child?

Although Wild Peter was famous in his time and his case is well known today, he was barely a feral child. He'd been living in the wild for only around a year, having run away from home owing to the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. He was found and returned home, but in the meantime his father had re-married, and this time his stepmother threw him out. His inability to speak and other characteristics could have led to the abuse.

Read the story of Wild Peter

There's a section on Wild Peter in Douthwaite's article on this website Homo ferus: Between Monster and Model.

Read more about Wild Peter

If you want to read more about Wild Peter, one of the chapters of Savage Girls and Wild Boys by Michael Newton is largely devoted to Peter, and explores the possibility that Swift wrote some of the pamphlets that appeared about him; it also discusses Defoe's quandary over whether Peter had a soul, and how he could think without language.