William Petre, 4th Baron Petre
Encyclopedia
William Petre, 4th Baron Petre (1626 – 5 January 1684) was an English
peer
, a victim of the Popish Plot
.
Petre was the eldest son of Robert Petre, third Baron Petre (1599–1638), and Mary (1603–1685), daughter of Anthony-Maria Browne, second Viscount Montagu
, who had been arrested in connection with the Gunpowder Plot
in 1605.
Petre was openly a Roman Catholic. A storm broke in 1678, when Titus Oates
alleged, with the support of Lord Shaftesbury, that Petre was involved in a Popish Plot
to murder Charles II
, was part of a conspiracy to reimpose the Catholic faith on England
, and that he had been appointed by the Jesuits
as lieutenant-general of a Catholic army of invasion. Petre was arrested and charged with high treason
, together with four other Roman Catholic peers, Lord Arundel of Wardour
, the Earl of Powis
, Lord Stafford
, and Lord Bellasyse
. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London
and entered a plea of not guilty, but no trial was brought.
In November, 1679, Charles II gave the royal assent to a bill which removed Petre from the House of Lords
. However, the paucity of evidence to substantiate the charge of high treason, and the weakening of the Whigs
in 1681–82, lessened the chances of Petre being convicted, and he continued to be held without trial.
In August, 1683, Petre predicted that he would be "cleared by about next spring", but then his health broke down. In December, Lady Petre petitioned Charles II unsuccessfully to release her husband on medical grounds. Expecting death, Petre wrote a final declaration to defend the Roman Catholics against the 'Popish Plot' charges. He died on 5 January 1683/84.
(1599–1638) and the nephew of William Petre
, the translator of Ribadeneira. He was only eleven years old when his father died, and this made him a ward of the King. He spent his childhood in the care of the second Earl of Northampton
. The family's finances were under strain, as the First English Civil War
broke out. William, the young Lord Petre, was royalist fighting for in Warwickshire. His estates were seized by the Commonwealth, and in 1644 Sir Henry Vane the Younger
moved in the House of Commons an ordinance for raising £3,000 out of Lord Petre’s estate for the recruiting of Colonel Harvey's regiment of horse.
The estates in Essex and London were initially sequestered for delinquency and recusancy; Petre was cleared of the charge of delinquency in February 1647; he received one third of his estates back, the Commonwealth put different stewards in charge to see that the rents were rightly divided, one third going to Petre and two thirds to the Parliament. The estate was leased at the time to Chaloner Chute
for £1,300, and there were many difficulties in apportioning the obligatory payments. Lord Petre, however, managed to get a larger share than his one third, and in 1647 the local court reported that he helds courts at Ingatestone
privately and made many thousands of pounds. As the war progressed, he lost two thirds of his Devon
lands. Petre resorted to many tactics to use to the full the lands that he retained, to cover his capital losses, and to postpone or to ease his payments to his dependants. Other members of the family fought for Charles I and met with misfortune in consequence.
Peter Whetcombe does not appear to have given complete satisfaction as steward, for in 1650 Lord Petre had Peter Whetcombe and others summoned for cutting and carrying away timber from his estate. To which they pleaded in defence Parliament’s order for raising £3,000 by sale of his wood (perhaps the ordinance for funding Colonel Harvey’s regiment of horse was never fulfilled). Whetcombe further pleaded that he had only cut and sold decayed timber and undergrowth. Arthur Barnardiston was appointed, and shortly after Mr. Richard Greaves, of Lincoln’s Inn held the office, and was directed to keep court on Lord Petre’s estate. Nevertheless, by 1651, Petre’s liabilities, with sequestration, were twenty times his income, and although the liabilities were not all due immediately, the fourth lord was under pressure that was not manageable.
In 1652, it was necessary for him to sell part of his inheritance. The alternative to the sale of his estates was to renounce his Catholic faith. He chose this alternative, and in May 1652, he took the Oath of Abjuration before the Lord Mayor of London
. By this act of apostasy, Petre recovered his estates, but it is clear from his last letter, written in the Tower to Charles II shortly before his death, that he died a Catholic. No composition fine was imposed, and the seizure of his estates was lifted on 29 June 1652. This act opened the road to recovery, and Petre, at times with the assistance of trustees, successfully recovered the family’s finances. By December 1658, the principal of the debt was down to £12,150, while annual interest on the debt was £2,708.
In 1655, Lord Petre reports himself ill and lame, and begs that he may be examined about his affairs at his own lodgings, which was granted. He was one of the Royalist ‘cavaliers’ imprisoned at Oxford in 1655, but until well advanced in life did nothing to attract public notices. In 1658, he was in custody, and seeking passes for himself and his servant to France, or beyond the seas. In 1659 President Whitelock wrote to Colonel Fagge and other militia commissioners of the county of Sussex: "Concerning Lord Petre, Council have received such satisfaction from various well-tried friends that you may liberate him if he will pass his honour to Colonel Fagge to live peaceably, and not abet anything to the prejudice of Parliament."
His first wife, Elizabeth Savage, (d. 1655) was daughter of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
. She was a notorious spendthrift who was less than scrupulous about paying her debts. In his diary, Samuel Pepys
, who was acting as solicitor for William Joyce, a chandler who was attempting to extract a debt he was owed by Lady Petre, makes no secret of his opinion of her. She was buried in Lord Petre’s family vault. William was living quietly in that retirement forced upon Catholics, ostracized from all influence, but as a devout Roman Catholic he involuntarily drew upon himself the attention of the perjurer Titus Oates and fame was thrust upon him at the time of the imaginary “Popish Plot
”.
In 1678 Oates swore in his deposition before Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey that he had seen ‘Lord Petre receive a commission as lieutenant-general of the Popish Army destined for the invasion of England from the hands of Joannes Paulus de Oliva, the General of the Jesuits’. The country was in ferment at once, and the wildest excitement prevailed.
To a certain substratum of truth, Titus Oates
added many lies, making it exceedingly difficult to separate the guilty from the innocent, and many persons were unjustly condemned and punished. He repeated these statements, before the House of Commons in October 1678, and the House promptly sent for Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, and instructed him to issue warrants for the apprehension of all the persons mentioned in Oates’s information.
William was arrested with four other Roman Catholic lords – Powis, Belasyse, Arundel and Stafford – who were similarly accused of being destined for high office under the Jesuitical regime, Petre was committed to the Tower on 28 October 1678. Some of those who, it was claimed, had been accessory to the plot, were tried and either executed or acquitted, but some were kept in confinement for years without trial. Lord Petre was one of these. The commons exhibited articles against him in April 1679. For a short time, he had as fellow prisoner Mr. Samuel Pepys
, who had been accused of being a Papist, and of selling Navy information to the French. John Evelyn
writes in his Diary
.
Yet, in spite of repeated demands for a trial by the prisoners’ friends, and of the clamour of the partisans of Oates on the other hand, no further steps were taken until 23 June 1680, when Lord Castlemaine, who had subsequently been committed, was tried and acquitted. A few months later Viscount Stafford was tried, condemned and executed; but the patrons of the plot derived no benefit from his death, and nothing was said of the trial of the other ‘popish lords’, though the government took no steps to release them.
Their confinement does not appear to have been very rigorous. Nevertheless, Petre, who was already an old man, suffered greatly in health, and when, in the autumn 1683, he felt that he had not long to live, he drew up a pathetic letter to the king. In this he says:
This letter was printed, and provoked some Protestant ‘observations’, which were in turn severely criticised in ‘a pair of spectacles for Mr. Observer; or remarks upon the phanatical observations on my Lord Petre’s letter’ possibly from the prolific pen of Roger L’Estrange. Lord Petre was fortunate in so far that he did not lose his head, but he protested his innocence in vain; it was remembered against him that undoubtedly foreign Papists had frequented Ingatestone Hall. It was useless to expect a Stuart to remember and feel any gratitude for the fact that Lord Petre had suffered and fought on the Royalist side so few years ago. Even the discovery in 1683 of the Rye House Plot
(called in the register by Rector Ewer ‘the Phanatic Plot’), to assassinate Charles and James and set the Duke of Monmouth on the throne, failed to create revulsion of feeling in Lord Petre’s favour, and he was doomed to remain in confinement.
Baron Petre died before anything was done. His death occurred on 5 January 1684. He did not die in vain, for at once the English public compassion forced the issue with regard to all the prisoners for the supposed plot. A writ of habeas corpus
on 12 February 1684 was issued and the judges of the King’s Bench declared that these men should long ago have been admitted to bail. The death of Petre did much to awaken fair-minded men to the iniquitous disabilities under which Catholics were suffering, and no Catholic suffered death for his religion after his death. Baron Petre was buried among his ancestors at Ingatestone
on 10 January 1684 laid in the old family vault, his coffin resting on that of his distinguished ancestor, Sir William Petre. There is no monument or slab placed in the church to his memory, probably because he left no son, and only one daughter, Mary, by his second wife, Bridget (1652–1695), daughter of John Pincheon of Writtle, he had an only daughter. Mary, who was born in Covent Garden
on 25 March 1679, married on 14 April 1696, George Heneage of Hainton in Lincolnshire, and died on 4 June 1704.
From “Catholic Martyrs of Essex” (B. Foley 1950), “This martyr died in prison, a confessor, if not a martyr for the Faith, and his death aroused such an outcry and so much compassion that it was instrumental in virtually putting an end to open persecution.”
There are four portraits of William; it is strange that he should have felt himself able to afford such extravagance. With the fines and estate sequestrations of the Commonwealth, his financial position was precarious and it is said that much of the original furniture of Ingatestone Hall had to be disposed of at that time.
His aged mother survived him just a year, and was buried on the 17th January 1685, on the north side of the then new south chancel, and not in the vault with her husband and son. No pictures of the fourth baron's wife or of his mother are known to exist.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
, a victim of the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
.
Petre was the eldest son of Robert Petre, third Baron Petre (1599–1638), and Mary (1603–1685), daughter of Anthony-Maria Browne, second Viscount Montagu
Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu
Anthony-Maria Browne was an English peer during the Tudor and Stuart period.He was born in 1574, and become the Second Viscount Montagu on the death of his grandfather in 1592. He married Jane Sackville, the daughter of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, in 1591...
, who had been arrested in connection with the Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
in 1605.
Petre was openly a Roman Catholic. A storm broke in 1678, when Titus Oates
Titus Oates
Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...
alleged, with the support of Lord Shaftesbury, that Petre was involved in a Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
to murder Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, was part of a conspiracy to reimpose the Catholic faith on England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and that he had been appointed by the Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
as lieutenant-general of a Catholic army of invasion. Petre was arrested and charged with high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
, together with four other Roman Catholic peers, Lord Arundel of Wardour
Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour
Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, PC was a Peer of England during the 17th century, and the most famous of the Lords Arundell of Wardour. He served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Steward, and was appointed to the Privy Council...
, the Earl of Powis
William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis
William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, PC was an English nobleman.He succeeded his father, the 2nd Baron Powis, as 3rd Baron Powis in 1667, and was created Earl of Powis in 1674 by King Charles II and Viscount Montgomery, of the Town of Montgomery, and Marquess of Powis in 1687 by King James II,...
, Lord Stafford
William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford
Blessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. He was a supporter of the Royalist cause before being implicated in the Popish Plot and executed for treason...
, and Lord Bellasyse
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse PC was an English nobleman, soldier and Member of Parliament, notable for his role during and after the English Civil War.-Early life:...
. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
and entered a plea of not guilty, but no trial was brought.
In November, 1679, Charles II gave the royal assent to a bill which removed Petre from the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. However, the paucity of evidence to substantiate the charge of high treason, and the weakening of the Whigs
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
in 1681–82, lessened the chances of Petre being convicted, and he continued to be held without trial.
In August, 1683, Petre predicted that he would be "cleared by about next spring", but then his health broke down. In December, Lady Petre petitioned Charles II unsuccessfully to release her husband on medical grounds. Expecting death, Petre wrote a final declaration to defend the Roman Catholics against the 'Popish Plot' charges. He died on 5 January 1683/84.
Biography
William was the eldest son of Robert Petre, 3rd Baron PetreRobert Petre, 3rd Baron Petre
Robert Petre, 3rd Baron Petre was educated at Oxford and acceded to the title in 1637 but enjoyed his honours but a short time, and followed his father to the grave in little more than a year. In 1620, he had married Mary , daughter of Anthony Brown, 2nd Viscount Montague...
(1599–1638) and the nephew of William Petre
William Petre
Sir William Petre was a secretary of state to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.Educated as a lawyer at Oxford, he became a public servant, probably through the influence of the Boleyns, one of whom, George, he had tutored at Oxford and another of whom, Anne, was married to the king...
, the translator of Ribadeneira. He was only eleven years old when his father died, and this made him a ward of the King. He spent his childhood in the care of the second Earl of Northampton
Earl of Northampton
Earl of Northampton is a title that has been created five times.-Earls in for the Honour of Huntingdon, first Creation :*Waltheof *Maud, Countess of Huntingdon** m. Simon I de Senlis** m...
. The family's finances were under strain, as the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
broke out. William, the young Lord Petre, was royalist fighting for in Warwickshire. His estates were seized by the Commonwealth, and in 1644 Sir Henry Vane the Younger
Henry Vane the Younger
Sir Henry Vane , son of Henry Vane the Elder , was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor...
moved in the House of Commons an ordinance for raising £3,000 out of Lord Petre’s estate for the recruiting of Colonel Harvey's regiment of horse.
The estates in Essex and London were initially sequestered for delinquency and recusancy; Petre was cleared of the charge of delinquency in February 1647; he received one third of his estates back, the Commonwealth put different stewards in charge to see that the rents were rightly divided, one third going to Petre and two thirds to the Parliament. The estate was leased at the time to Chaloner Chute
Chaloner Chute
Chaloner Chute was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1659. He was Speaker briefly in 1659....
for £1,300, and there were many difficulties in apportioning the obligatory payments. Lord Petre, however, managed to get a larger share than his one third, and in 1647 the local court reported that he helds courts at Ingatestone
Ingatestone
Ingatestone is a small town in Essex, England, with a population of about 4500 people. To the immediate north lies the village of Fryerning, and the two form the civil parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning....
privately and made many thousands of pounds. As the war progressed, he lost two thirds of his Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
lands. Petre resorted to many tactics to use to the full the lands that he retained, to cover his capital losses, and to postpone or to ease his payments to his dependants. Other members of the family fought for Charles I and met with misfortune in consequence.
Peter Whetcombe does not appear to have given complete satisfaction as steward, for in 1650 Lord Petre had Peter Whetcombe and others summoned for cutting and carrying away timber from his estate. To which they pleaded in defence Parliament’s order for raising £3,000 by sale of his wood (perhaps the ordinance for funding Colonel Harvey’s regiment of horse was never fulfilled). Whetcombe further pleaded that he had only cut and sold decayed timber and undergrowth. Arthur Barnardiston was appointed, and shortly after Mr. Richard Greaves, of Lincoln’s Inn held the office, and was directed to keep court on Lord Petre’s estate. Nevertheless, by 1651, Petre’s liabilities, with sequestration, were twenty times his income, and although the liabilities were not all due immediately, the fourth lord was under pressure that was not manageable.
In 1652, it was necessary for him to sell part of his inheritance. The alternative to the sale of his estates was to renounce his Catholic faith. He chose this alternative, and in May 1652, he took the Oath of Abjuration before the Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
. By this act of apostasy, Petre recovered his estates, but it is clear from his last letter, written in the Tower to Charles II shortly before his death, that he died a Catholic. No composition fine was imposed, and the seizure of his estates was lifted on 29 June 1652. This act opened the road to recovery, and Petre, at times with the assistance of trustees, successfully recovered the family’s finances. By December 1658, the principal of the debt was down to £12,150, while annual interest on the debt was £2,708.
In 1655, Lord Petre reports himself ill and lame, and begs that he may be examined about his affairs at his own lodgings, which was granted. He was one of the Royalist ‘cavaliers’ imprisoned at Oxford in 1655, but until well advanced in life did nothing to attract public notices. In 1658, he was in custody, and seeking passes for himself and his servant to France, or beyond the seas. In 1659 President Whitelock wrote to Colonel Fagge and other militia commissioners of the county of Sussex: "Concerning Lord Petre, Council have received such satisfaction from various well-tried friends that you may liberate him if he will pass his honour to Colonel Fagge to live peaceably, and not abet anything to the prejudice of Parliament."
His first wife, Elizabeth Savage, (d. 1655) was daughter of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
-Family:Savage was the first son of Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers. He succeeded to the Savage viscountcy in 1635 on the death of his father, and succeeded to the Rivers earldom on the death of his grandfather in 1640, by a...
. She was a notorious spendthrift who was less than scrupulous about paying her debts. In his diary, Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, who was acting as solicitor for William Joyce, a chandler who was attempting to extract a debt he was owed by Lady Petre, makes no secret of his opinion of her. She was buried in Lord Petre’s family vault. William was living quietly in that retirement forced upon Catholics, ostracized from all influence, but as a devout Roman Catholic he involuntarily drew upon himself the attention of the perjurer Titus Oates and fame was thrust upon him at the time of the imaginary “Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
”.
In 1678 Oates swore in his deposition before Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey that he had seen ‘Lord Petre receive a commission as lieutenant-general of the Popish Army destined for the invasion of England from the hands of Joannes Paulus de Oliva, the General of the Jesuits’. The country was in ferment at once, and the wildest excitement prevailed.
To a certain substratum of truth, Titus Oates
Titus Oates
Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...
added many lies, making it exceedingly difficult to separate the guilty from the innocent, and many persons were unjustly condemned and punished. He repeated these statements, before the House of Commons in October 1678, and the House promptly sent for Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, and instructed him to issue warrants for the apprehension of all the persons mentioned in Oates’s information.
William was arrested with four other Roman Catholic lords – Powis, Belasyse, Arundel and Stafford – who were similarly accused of being destined for high office under the Jesuitical regime, Petre was committed to the Tower on 28 October 1678. Some of those who, it was claimed, had been accessory to the plot, were tried and either executed or acquitted, but some were kept in confinement for years without trial. Lord Petre was one of these. The commons exhibited articles against him in April 1679. For a short time, he had as fellow prisoner Mr. Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, who had been accused of being a Papist, and of selling Navy information to the French. John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
writes in his Diary
John Evelyn's Diary
The Diary of John Evelyn, a gentlemanly Royalist and virtuoso of the seventeenth century, was first published in 1818 under the title Memoirs Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, in an edition by William Bray. Bray was assisted by William Upcott, who had access to the Evelyn family...
.
Yet, in spite of repeated demands for a trial by the prisoners’ friends, and of the clamour of the partisans of Oates on the other hand, no further steps were taken until 23 June 1680, when Lord Castlemaine, who had subsequently been committed, was tried and acquitted. A few months later Viscount Stafford was tried, condemned and executed; but the patrons of the plot derived no benefit from his death, and nothing was said of the trial of the other ‘popish lords’, though the government took no steps to release them.
Their confinement does not appear to have been very rigorous. Nevertheless, Petre, who was already an old man, suffered greatly in health, and when, in the autumn 1683, he felt that he had not long to live, he drew up a pathetic letter to the king. In this he says:
This letter was printed, and provoked some Protestant ‘observations’, which were in turn severely criticised in ‘a pair of spectacles for Mr. Observer; or remarks upon the phanatical observations on my Lord Petre’s letter’ possibly from the prolific pen of Roger L’Estrange. Lord Petre was fortunate in so far that he did not lose his head, but he protested his innocence in vain; it was remembered against him that undoubtedly foreign Papists had frequented Ingatestone Hall. It was useless to expect a Stuart to remember and feel any gratitude for the fact that Lord Petre had suffered and fought on the Royalist side so few years ago. Even the discovery in 1683 of the Rye House Plot
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....
(called in the register by Rector Ewer ‘the Phanatic Plot’), to assassinate Charles and James and set the Duke of Monmouth on the throne, failed to create revulsion of feeling in Lord Petre’s favour, and he was doomed to remain in confinement.
Baron Petre died before anything was done. His death occurred on 5 January 1684. He did not die in vain, for at once the English public compassion forced the issue with regard to all the prisoners for the supposed plot. A writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
on 12 February 1684 was issued and the judges of the King’s Bench declared that these men should long ago have been admitted to bail. The death of Petre did much to awaken fair-minded men to the iniquitous disabilities under which Catholics were suffering, and no Catholic suffered death for his religion after his death. Baron Petre was buried among his ancestors at Ingatestone
Ingatestone
Ingatestone is a small town in Essex, England, with a population of about 4500 people. To the immediate north lies the village of Fryerning, and the two form the civil parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning....
on 10 January 1684 laid in the old family vault, his coffin resting on that of his distinguished ancestor, Sir William Petre. There is no monument or slab placed in the church to his memory, probably because he left no son, and only one daughter, Mary, by his second wife, Bridget (1652–1695), daughter of John Pincheon of Writtle, he had an only daughter. Mary, who was born in Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
on 25 March 1679, married on 14 April 1696, George Heneage of Hainton in Lincolnshire, and died on 4 June 1704.
From “Catholic Martyrs of Essex” (B. Foley 1950), “This martyr died in prison, a confessor, if not a martyr for the Faith, and his death aroused such an outcry and so much compassion that it was instrumental in virtually putting an end to open persecution.”
There are four portraits of William; it is strange that he should have felt himself able to afford such extravagance. With the fines and estate sequestrations of the Commonwealth, his financial position was precarious and it is said that much of the original furniture of Ingatestone Hall had to be disposed of at that time.
His aged mother survived him just a year, and was buried on the 17th January 1685, on the north side of the then new south chancel, and not in the vault with her husband and son. No pictures of the fourth baron's wife or of his mother are known to exist.