The earthly owner of the swamp where Tom Walker meets Old Scratch, Deacon Peabody is more truly the devil’s property himself, hypocritically scrutinizing his neighbors’ sins and overlooking his own as he does. Old Scratch points out a tree in the swamp into which Peabody’s name is carved: like Peabody himself, it is thriving on the outside (Peabody made his riches trading shrewdly with the Native Americans) but rotten on the inside.