John Howe Peyton was born in Stony Hill, Stafford County, Virginia, on April 3, 1778. He attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton (now Princeton University), graduated in 1797. He passed the bar and became a lawyer in 1799, focusing on criminal law. He worked as deputy U. S. Attorney for the western district of Virginia. He turned down several nominations, one to congress in 1820 and a judgeship in 1824. He later became a state senator (1839-45) and founder of the Virginia Female Institute at Staunton. In 1840, he was appointed a visitor to the United States military academy, and he wrote the report of that year. For ten years he was president of the board of directors of the Western Virginia lunatic asylum. He was a member of the Whig party. He died in 1847.

He married Susanna Smith Madison (1780-1820) in 1802, and after her death married Ann Elizabeth Lewis (1802-1850).

He had a son, John Lewis, born in Staunton, Virginia, 15 September 1824, who graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia in 1845.