Peel was born at Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire, to the industrialist and parliamentarian Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, and his wife Ellen Yates.
His father was one of the richest textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution.
The family moved from Lancashire to Drayton Manor near Tamworth, Staffordshire; the manor house has since been demolished, the site occupied by Drayton Manor Theme Park.

Peel received his early education from a clergyman tutor in Bury and at a clergyman's local school in Tamworth.
He may also have attended Bury Grammar School or Hipperholme Grammar School, though evidence for either is anecdotal rather than textual.
He started at Harrow School in February 1800.
At Harrow he was a contemporary of Lord Byron, who recalled of Peel that "we were on good terms" and that "I was always in scrapes, and he never".
On Harrow's Speech Day in 1804, Peel and Byron acted part of Virgil's Aeneid, Peel playing Turnus and Byron playing Latinus.

In 1805 Peel matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford.
His tutor was Charles Lloyd, later Regius Professor of Divinity, on Peel's recommendation appointed Bishop of Oxford.
In 1808 Peel became the first Oxford student to take a double first in Classics and Mathematics.

Peel was a law student at Lincoln's Inn in 1809.
He also held military commissions as a captain in the Manchester Regiment of Militia in 1808, and later as lieutenant in the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1820.
Peel was born at Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire, to the industrialist and parliamentarian Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, and his wife Ellen Yates. His father was one of the richest textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution. The family moved from Lancashire to Drayton Manor near Tamworth, Staffordshire; the manor house has since been demolished, the site occupied by Drayton Manor Theme Park.
Peel received his early education from a clergyman tutor in Bury and at a clergyman's local school in Tamworth. He may also have attended Bury Grammar School or Hipperholme Grammar School, though evidence for either is anecdotal rather than textual. He started at Harrow School in February 1800. At Harrow he was a contemporary of Lord Byron, who recalled of Peel that "we were on good terms" and that "I was always in scrapes, and he never". On Harrow's Speech Day in 1804, Peel and Byron acted part of Virgil's Aeneid, Peel playing Turnus and Byron playing Latinus.
In 1805 Peel matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford. His tutor was Charles Lloyd, later Regius Professor of Divinity, on Peel's recommendation appointed Bishop of Oxford. In 1808 Peel became the first Oxford student to take a double first in Classics and Mathematics.
Peel was a law student at Lincoln's Inn in 1809. He also held military commissions as a captain in the Manchester Regiment of Militia in 1808, and later as lieutenant in the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1820.
Robert Peel