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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Ever since the purchase of the Manor of Ingatestone in 1539, the Petre family has played a prominent part not only in the history of the Catholic community in Essex, but in the life of the Church further afield. Sir William Petre, the founder of the Essex line, and two of his descendants have merited the attention of a biographer, while there has also been a substantial periodical literature associated with the family. However, no such detailed study has yet been written on perhaps the most intriguing member of the family, the little-known thirteenth Baron of Writtle, Monsignor Lord William Joseph Petre. The present article seeks to shed light on the early part of the career of this pioneer of Catholic liberal education and the first Catholic priest to take his seat in the House of Lords since the Reformation. The focal point of Petre's earlier years was the monastery and school of St. Gregory's, Downside.
1 Emmison, F. G., Tudor Secretary: Sir William Petre at Court and Home (London, 1961);Google Scholar Edwards, A. C., John Petre: Essays on the Life and Background of John, 1st Lord Petre, 1549–1613 (London, 1975);Google Scholar Petre, M., The Ninth Lord Petre (London, 1928).Google Scholar For a selection of periodical literature see the bibliography in Foster, S., The Catholic Church in Ingatestone from the Reformation to the Present Day (Ingatestone/Great Wakering, 1982).Google Scholar
2 A number of articles may be recommended: Cox, B., in ‘Memoriam: The Right Honourable and Right Reverend Monsignor Lord Petre’, Downside Review, vol. XI no. 2, pp. 89–107;Google Scholar McClelland, V. A., ‘The Liberal Training of England's Catholic Youth: William Joseph Petre (1847–93) and Educational Reform’, Victorian Studies, vol. XV no. 3, pp. 257–77;Google Scholar Read, V., ‘A New Departure in Catholic Education’, Essex Recusant vol. 20 no. 1, pp. 25–28;Google Scholar Foster, S., ‘The Thirteenth Lord Petre’, Essex Journal vol. 19 no. 3, pp. 69–71.Google Scholar The present article is a revised version of a paper given to the English Benedictine Congregation's Symposium held at Downside, 7 April 1988, and subsequently printed in E.B. C. History Symposium 1988–9 pp. 4–19 and The Raven [Magazine of Downside School] 1988, pp. 24–33.
3 Knowles, D., The Historian and Character (Cambridge, 1961), p. 241.Google Scholar
4 DAA, Abbot’s Archives (hereafter A.A.): William Petre to Dom Placid de Paiva, n.d. [probably winter 1866–67].
5 Sire, H.J.A., Gentlemen Philosophers: Catholic Higher Education at Liege and Stonyhurst College 1774–1916 (Worthing, 1988) pp. 80–113.Google Scholar
6 DAA A.A.: William Petre to Dom Placid de Paiva, n.d. [probably winter 1866–67].
7 ibidem.
8 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Dom Placid de Paiva, 22 January 1872.
9 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Dom Placid de Paiva, 23 October 1872.
10 ibidem.
11 Petre, W., Catholic Systems of School Discipline (London, 1878) p. 42.Google Scholar
2 Cox, art. cit., p. 96.
3 Petre, W., Remarks on the Present Condition of Catholic Liberal Education (London, 1877) quoted in The Tablet, 6 October 1877, p. 425.Google Scholar
14 Remarks, p. 18.
15 DAA, Ford Papers: Dom Aidan Gasquet to Dom Edmund Ford, 15 April 1875.
16 Van Zeller, H., Downside By and Large (London & New York, 1954), p. 56,Google Scholar fn 1.
17 Cox, art. cit., p. 97.
18 DAA A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 16 July 1875.
19 ibidem.
20 Cox, art. cit., p. 97.
21 Knowles, D., ‘Abbot Butler: A Memoir’, Downside Review, July 1934, pp. 349–50.Google Scholar
22 Butler, C., ‘The Record of the Century’ in Downside Review, NS vol. 14 (1914), p. 60.Google Scholar
23 The Tablet, 28 July 1877, p. 115.
24 DAA, Ford Papers: Dom Aidan Gasquet to Dom Edmund Ford, 27 October 1874.
25 DAA, Ford Papers: Dom Aidan Gasquet to Dom Edmund Ford, 15 April 1875.
26 DAA, Ford Papers: Dom Aidan Gasquet to Dom Edmund Ford, 3 August 1875.
27 DAA, A.A.: W. Petre, Lectures on “The Culture of the Intellect and Art of Intellectual Life.’
28 Cox, art. cit., p. 96.
29 DAA, Butler Papers: William Petre to Dom Clement Clarke, 7 January 1877.
30 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 2 March 1877.
31 DAA, Butler Papers: William Petre to Dom Clement Clarke, n.d. [? spring 1877].
32 ibidem.
33 ibidem.
34 DAA, Ford Papers: William Petre to Dom Edmund Ford, n.d. [after July 1884].
35 DAA, Butler Papers: William Petre to Dom Clement Clarke, n.d. [? Spring 1877].
36 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 1 September 1877.
37 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 6 September 1877.
38 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 3 October 1877.
39 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 19 October 1877.
40 DAA, A.A.: William Petre to Prior Murphy, 30 October 1878.
41 DAA, Ford Papers: Dom Bede Cox to Dom Edmund Ford, 16 March 1881.
42 DAA, Butler Papers: Abbot Cuthbert Butler's TVS Autobiography.
43 DAA, Ford Papers: William Petre to Dom Edmund Ford, n.d. [after July 1884].
44 DAA, Ford Papers: William Petre to Dom Edmund Ford, 7 August 1884.
45 ibidem.
46 Cox, art. cit., p. 93.
47 Ampleforth Abbey Archives, Burge Papers: William Petre to Prior Burge, n.d. [after November 1885].
48 Ampleforth Abbey Archives, Burge Papers: William Petre to Prior Burge, n.d. [March 1886].
49 Butler, art. cit., p. 60.
50 Van Zeller, op. cit., p. 56.
51 Cox, art. cit., p. 96.
52 Petre, M., My Way of Faith (London, 1937), p. 33.Google Scholar
53 Cox, art. cit., p. 96.