John Petre, 1st Baron Petre (20 December 1549 – 11 October 1613) was an English peer who lived during the Tudor period and early Stuart period. He and his family were recusants — people who adhered to the Roman Catholic faith after the English Reformation. Nevertheless, Lord Petre was appointed to a number of official positions in the county of Essex.
Biography
John was the only surviving son of the statesman Sir William Petre by his second wife Anne Browne, daughter of Sir William Browne, Lord Mayor of London. He lived at Ingatestone Hall in Essex.
A talented amateur musician, he kept a full set of musical instruments (lute, five viols, virginals and organ) and was a patron of the composer William Byrd, a fellow Roman Catholic who lived at nearby Stondon Massey. On several occasions, Byrd brought a group of musicians to Ingatestone to entertain at Christmas and dedicated a collection of his Graduale settings to Lord Petre. John Petre was not endowed with the ability of his father and a much less forceful character but being a diligent landowner, public figure and a competent musician along with his great possessions and his father's fame served him well. We know little more about him. Like his descendants, he was a Roman Catholic, but he must have kept his religious opinions in the background, or James would hardly have made him a peer.
In 1570, he married Mary (died 2 August 1604), eldest daughter of Sir Edward Walgrave (or Waldegrave) of Borley. By the time of her marriage, Mary was fatherless and poor but gave her parents-in-law 'much joy in his choice'. She left four sons, of whom the eldest, William (1575-1637), 2nd Lord Petre, was the father of William Petre (1602–1677). He probably erected the beautiful recumbent tomb of Sir William, and is himself commemorated by the magnificent one in the north chapel, now the vestry.
When Sir William died in 1572, his widow continued to reside at Ingatestone Hall, and so John and Mary, then resident at Writtle Park, looked for another property to suit their status. In 1574, John added West Thorndon Hall and a further to the family estate, which became the principal seat of the family.
He was knighted, in 1576, by Queen Elizabeth I after his father's death. The domestic papers of Queen Elizabeth's time not infrequently notice Sir John. Despite his Catholic attitudes, he held a number of local offices in Essex, as JP, sheriff (1575-6), and deputy lieutenant (1590–98). He was also MP for Essex in the Parliaments of 1584–85 and 1586-87.
In 1603, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Petre, of Writtle in the County of Essex. He publicly acknowledged that he was a Roman Catholic and his descendants remained Catholic since.
In 1589, his father's friend, William Cecil, now Lord Burghley, wrote to the Deputy Lieutenants of Essex that he has appointed three gentlemen to be captains of the '600 foot formerly entrusted to Sir J. Petre.'
The year 1590 found these foot soldiers trained and in readiness, but the Deputy Lieutenants reported to Lord Burghley that the horses were not ready; they had provided sufficient powder, and assured him that the observances of Lent had in all things been confirmed. This was just after the Spanish Armada, and the county still lived in fear of invasion. The same year found John Petre joined with Sir Thomas Mildmay in investigating the grievance of the mariners, gunners, fishermen, and other seafaring men within the county, who complained they were kept from their ordinary occupation by being constrained to attend at three hours’ warning for Navy service.
In 1600, Sir John installed his newly married son in Ingatestone Hall, to gain experience in the ‘government’ of a house, and the in-going inventory gives a vivid picture of it within a generation of the builder's death.
On his accession to the English throne, King James I found himself short of money, and, his predecessors having disposed of all the Abbey and Church lands, he ingeniously started selling peerages. Eight years later James created baronetcies, and sold them instead of the peerages. By 1615, James was selling peerages at £100,000 each, just over £11 million today).
John Petre's vast properties and position in the county would have justified James I elevating him to the peerage which he was in the accession honours on 21 July 1603 and thus created Baron Petre of Writtle. But we can be reasonably sure that John's ennoblement was for more honourable reasons, as J.P., High Sheriff, Deputy Lieutenant, Knight of the Shire and militia commander, he was a loyal servant of the Crown.