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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 May 2017
The Lords Petre were always one of the most prominent of English Catholic families, and they were also one of the richest. Their landed estates had been built up in the middle of the sixteenth century by Sir William Petre, Secretary of State to three Tudor sovereigns. Sir William's son, John, was created a Baron in 1611, but in the early 17th century the family properties ceased to grow in size, partly because Catholicism excluded them from the profits of office, and partly because provision for younger sons offset such new acquisitions as were made. But even so the estates inherited by the third Lord Petre in 1637 were large enough to place him clearly in the ranks of the great landed magnates. In Essex he had a well-consolidated belt of land lying to the west and south-west of Chelmsford, and centred on the two family residences of Ingatestone Hall and Thorndon Hall. Altogether in Essex Petre had about 11,000 acres of freehold land and the lordship of seventeen manors, and these produced some £5,500 per annum or considerably more than half his total income from land. In addition he had a large estate on the opposite side of the country, in Devon. This lay in two distinct areas, one centred on Axminster and extending down the Axe valley and its tributaries, and the other in the southerly projection of the county on the southern edge of Dartmoor, where the principal possession was the vast moorland manor of South Brent. Besides the main estates in Essex and Devon, there were some isolated properties: the manor of Osmington down on the Dorset coast; Toddenham and Sutton in Gloucestershire; Kennett and Kentford on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border.
My thanks are due to the present Lord Petre for permission to use the documents on which this article is based, and to the staff of the Essex Record Office for all their help whilst I was working at Chelmsford.
1. For an account of Sir William Petre's career see Emmison, F. G., Tudor Secretary (London, 1961)Google Scholar; and for a study of Sir William and his immediate successors as Essex landowners, W. R. Emerson, The Economic Development of the estates of the Petre family in Essex in the 16th and early 17th Centuries (unpublished D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1951).
2. See note 8 below.
3. For genealogical and general information about the various members of the Petre family, see Howard, J. J. and Farnham Burke, H. (eds.) Genealogical Collections illustrating the history of the Roman Catholic Families of England (London, 1887)Google Scholar and Complete Peerage.
4. See the lengthy series of settlements making provision for this large family: E.R.O., D/Dp. F.14, F.20, F.22-25, F.28-31, F.34; T.77. T.84, T.86, T.165. T.179.
5. There is no complete rental of all the Petre estates for any single year. However from a variety of sources the following composite account of their landed income can be compiled: —
These figures, however, are not quite complete and the omitted items (sales of produce and profits of courts in particular) would probably bring the gross family income up to or over the £8,000 per annum mark. The values of the mansions in Essex and London which were not let out but retained for the use of the family, have not been included. References: E.R.O.. D/Dp. E.9, E.22/2, Z.30/27.
6. Plea of William Lord Petre, dated 3rd March 1659, in E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49.
7. E.R.O., D/Dp. F. 224.
8. See below, p. 103.
9. Lord Petre's seccnd wife was Bridget, daughter of John Pincheon, Esq., of Writtel, Essex. Although she is described as co-heiress of her father, she does not seem to have inherited anything very much from him.
10. Oliver, G., Collections illustrating the history of the Catholic Religion (London, 1857), pp. 201–202.Google Scholar
11. Bill of Complaint of the surviving executors of Robert, Lord Petre, dated 24th June 1659, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49.
12. Will of Robert, Lord Petre, E.R.O., D/Dp. F.36.
13. Bill of Complaint dated 24 June 1659, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49
14. British Museum, Add. MSS. 5494, f. 107.
15. The actual deed establishing the 30-year trust has disappeared but references to it and recitals of its contents are numerous. See for instance the draft of a petition to Parliament, E.R.O., D/Dp. F.133.
16. Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General (1650), E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3. See also draft lease dated 1639, D/Dp. F.168.
17. Bill of Complaint dated 24 June 1659, E.R.O., D/Dp. L. 49, Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General, D/Dp. L.3. Lease to the Earl of Dorset, D/Dp. T.179.
18. Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3.
19. Estimated from E.R.O., D/Dp. E.22/2, Z.30/27; Devon R.O. 123 M/E.358.
20. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51, especially the Brief for Counsel (1663).
21. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.21.
22. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49 and L.50.
23. Draft petition to the Master of the Court of Wards, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.2.
24. Lease to Cheeke and Pye, E.R.O., D/Dp. T.179.
25. This emerges from various documents drawn up in connexion with the law suit over the payment of the portion of Mary, the eldest daughter: E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51.
26. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.41/6.
27. Copy of an order of the Court of Wards dated 2 July 1639, E.R.O., D/Dp. F.168.
28. Bill of Complaint dated 24 June 1659, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49.
29. This was an unusually long time for a jointure to remain payable but in the following century the widow of the 7th Lord Petre (the hero of Pope's Rape of the Lock) survived her husband by 72 years and received her jointure annuity for all that time!
30. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.21, F.34, F.36.
31. E.R.O.. D/Dp. F.40.
32. See below, pp. 100-101.
33. See references cited in note 4 above.
34. Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3.
35. Order of the Court of Wards, dated Trinity Term 16 Car., E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49. See also draft petition to Parliament, D/Dp. F.133.
36. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.43.
37. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51. See also belcw, pp. 101-103.
38. See recital of the terms of the deed establishing the 30-year trust in the draft petition to Parliament, E.R.O., D/Dp. F.133.
39. Bill of Complaint dated 24 June 1659, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49.
40. Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3; D/Dp. Z.30/31; and House of Lords Record Office, Lords Records, Petition of Edward White, 24 Oct. 1643.
41. Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money, III, p. 1256.
42. British Museum, Add. MSS. 5494, f. 107.
43. Journals of the House of Commons, under 30 September 1643.
44. House of Lords Record Office, Lords Records, Petition of Edward White. 24 Oct. 1643.
45. Journals of the House of Lords under 24, 26, and 30 Oct., 19 Car. I; Journals of the House of Commons under 24 Oct. 1643.
46. Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding, I, p. 277.
47. Petition to the Committee of Indemnity, and Bill of Complaint to the Attorney General; E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3.
48. Journals of the House of Commons under 2 Jan. 1642/3; Journals of the House of Lords under 13 Dec, 23 Car. I (1647); and E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
49. The Devon estate was sequestered in April 1646: Cal. Com. Comp. I, p. 36. The exact dates of the sequestrations of the Gloucestershire and Dorset lands do not emerge.
50. Information of Captain Henry Newbridge against Lord Petre, Devon R.O.. 123 M/E. 18, 19.
51. Order of the Standing Committee of Devon, Devon R.O., 123 M/E. 14.
52. Cal. Com. Comp., I, p. 86.
53. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.49 and L.51.
54. See below, p. 101.
55. E.R.O., D/Dp. E.22/1.
56. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/29.
57. Cal. Com. Comp., Ill, p. 1781.
58. Evidence of Toby Edmonds, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51.
59. Cal. Com. Comp., Ill, p. 1781. ‘
60. Ibid., I, pp. 342, 498.
61. Ibid., I, p. 1781.
62. Ibid., Ill, p. 1781.
63. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31; and Cal. Com. Comp., Ill, pp. 1780-1781.
64. For another example see Roebuck, P., “The Constables of Everingham”. Recusant History, vol. 9, No. 2, April 1967.Google Scholar
65. Foley, H., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (London. 1875-1883), II, pp. 425–428.Google Scholar
66. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
67. House of Lords Records Office, Lords Records, Edward White's Memorial. 24 Oct. 1643.
68. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
69. E.R.O., D/Dp. E.22/1. See also Cal. Com. Comp. Ill, p. 1779.
70. Cal. Com. Comp., Ill, p. 1779.
71. E.R.O., D/Dp. E.58.
72. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3; and Z.30/31.
73. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
73a. Journals of the House of Commons, under 22 Aug. 1642; 18 Feb. and 2 Jan 1642/43 respectively.
74. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.226.
74a. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.224.
75. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.41/6.
76. E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3.
77. Copy of Attorney General's Reply, D/Dp. L.3.
78. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.23 and T.90; F.54; F.171.
79. Petition to the Committee of Indemnity, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.3 and D/Dp L.36/39.
80. E.R.O., D/Dp. E.60.
81. That this was the arrangement has been inferred from a variety of references, especially E.R.O., D/Dp. T.86, A.62/1-4, and Z.30/31.
82. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.21 and A.63/6, 8.
83. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.133.
84. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.46, T.18, T.44, T.91, T.179.
85. For this paragraph and the next, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51, passim.
86. Answer of Lord Petre dated Michaelmas 1655, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51.
87. Evidence of Toby Edmonds, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51.
88. Copy of Chancery Decree dated 2 May 1655, E.R.O., D/Dp. L.51.
89. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.50, and T.42, T.84, T.135.
89a. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.47.
90. S. Pepys, Diary (Globe edition, London, 1925) under 3rd, 4th, 18th, 21st, 26th April 1664.
91. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.52.
92. Schedule of debts outstanding on 28th October 1652, D/Dp. F.50.
93. Petre's actual income at this time, and his potential income should he recover his sequestered estates, was roughly as follows:
Some comparisons with the figures cited in note 8 above should be noted, a) The reduced yield of the Essex estate by 1651 was due partly to the fact that the Dowager Lady Petre was now in possession of her jointure lands; partly to the destruction of woodlands on the estate; and in small measure to a fall in rents, b) The potential figure for London assumes that Petre let out the Petrehouse to a tenant and did not occupy it himself, c) The larger part of the Gloucestershire estate was in the possession of Lord Petre's brother John, d) The higher yield of the western estate in 1651 than ten years previously was due to the selling of reversions to leases on a larger scale.
References: E.R.O., D/Dp. A.43, A.62/1, E.22/2, L.36/48, and L.51 (copy of Chancery Decree dated 2 May 1665); Gloucestershire R.O., D.1099, M.33.
94. E.R.O., D/Dp. A.62/1, which is a rental for the two thirds part of the Essex estate subject to sequestration. Two thirds of the taxes and repairs came to about £330. All the other deductions mentioned in this paragraph and the liabilities summarized in the text, have been dealt with above.
95. See note 93 above.
96. E.R.O., D/Dp. E.60 and L.36/48.
97. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
98. Hardacre, P., The Royalists During the Puritan Revolution (The Hague, 1956), p. 56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
99. P. Hardacre, op. cit., p. 92.
100. Firth, C. H. and Rait, R. S., Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum (London, 1911), II, pp. 565–577.Google Scholar
101. Journals of the House of Commons, under June 29th 1652.
102. P. Hardacre, op. cit., pp. 56-57.
103. G. Oliver, op. cit., pp. 201-202.
104. Journals of the House of Commons, under June 30th 1652; and P. Hardacre, op. cit., pp. 92-93.
105. Cal. Com. Comp., I, p. 1780.
106. Dring, Thomas, A Catalogue of the Lords, Knights and Gentlemen that have Compounded for their Estates (London, 1655).Google Scholar
107. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
108. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.237.
109. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31 and F.50.
110. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.50.
111. E.R.O., D / Dp. T.42, T.84, and F.50.
112. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.135, T.191, and F.50.
113. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.50.
114. E.R.O., D/Dp. A.43, A.62/3, L.36/48, Devon R.O., 123M/E.358.
115. These items were as follows: the rent to Lord Petre, £550 (E.R.O., D/Dp. F.50); repairs and taxes, £500 (based on D/Dp. A.62/1); administration, £100 (a guess); annuities for the uncles, to Lord Petre's mother, and maintenance for his brother Thomas and sister Dorothy, £1,200, £200, and £300 respectively (see above in the text and D/Dp. F.133); interest on debts. £858 (D/Dp. F.50).
116. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.56.
117. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.78.
118. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.191.
119. P. Hardacre, op. cit., pp. 116-117
120. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31, F. 46. T.26, T.39, T.86. and D/DAc.146.
121. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.59.
122. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.60, Z.30/31, and F.61a.
123. E.R.O., D/Dp. T. 80 and D/DQt. 198.
124. E.R.O., D/Dp. Z.30/31.
125. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.237 and T.246.
126. They had been settled on John, a younger son of the first Lord Petre, and for a time had been separated from the main part of the estate, but had been reunited with it at John's death in 1623. After that they had been used to secure annuities granted to his younger children by the 2nd Lord.
127. British Museum, Add. MSS. 28,251. f. 344-347.
128. See above, p. 102.
129. E.R.O., D/Dp. T.50 and F.174.
130. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.65 and F.68.
13f. E.R.O., D/Dp. F.65.
132. E.R.O., D/Dp. A.63/5.
133. G. Oliver, op.cit., p. 97.
