William Petre, 13th Baron Petre

Family

He was the eldest son of William Bernard Petre, 12th Baron Petre and Mary Theresa Clifford (1823–1895).

His maternal grandparents were Charles Thomas Clifford and Theresa Constable-Maxwell. Theresa was a daughter of Charles Clifford, 6th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh and Eleanor Mary Arundell. Eleanor was a daughter of Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour and his wife Mary Christina Conquest.

Priesthood

Petre began studying for the priesthood in 1872, was ordained in 1874 and taught for a few years at Downside Abbey where he endowed a library (from which the works of Charles Dickens were banned) a cloister and a swimming pool. However he found the conventional Catholic education narrow and stultifying and resolved to open his own school.

William was in Holy Orders and Domestic Prelate to the Court of the Vatican. He was the author of several polemical pamphlets on the problem of Catholic Liberal Education, in which he appears to have taken a great interest; one pamphlet is highly critical of Jacques Offenbach whose music he claimed was intended "merely to satisfy the cravings of sensibilities fuddled by brandy and soda water”.

St George's College (Woburn Park campus)

Largely from the sale of the family library, in the summer of 1877 he purchased Woburn Park, home of the wealthy Southcote family, 100–120 acres (0.40–0.49 km²) of mostly deer park-style landscape fronting briefly the River Thames, in Addlestone, Surrey, England and containing a commanding knoll above the end of the combined Bourne, a deep stream and its confluence. The wide knoll is Woburn Hill where Philip Southcote turned its farmhouse into a mansion in the early 18th century.

In Woburn Park, Petre began a Catholic boarding school with a half-dozen boys. It was deliberately unconventional: it had few explicit rules and a Parliament at which the school’s administration was freely debated by the pupils. These debates were recorded in the school magazine, The Amoeba.

Pupils dressed for dinner every night and special mention is made of the school's "constant hot water". The school grew and its ceremonial mace, made in 1881, displayed in the Stone Hall comes from the “parliament”. Lord Petre, wearing sumptuous robes, acted as Speaker as the boys, sitting as members for imaginary constituencies such as Chilcompton, Gurney Slade and Radstock, debated “bills” in precise imitation of the House of Commons.

In Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk’s "Essex" a passage reads:

“A late lord Petre was himself a priest, who took a special interest in education, and carried on a lordly school at Woburn Hill, once renowned as a ferme ornée, between Weybridge and Chertsey”.

The first incarnation of the school failed financially after a few years in midsummer 1884 when Mgr. Petre came into his title of Lord Petre. The accidental death by drowning of Fotheringham, a senior boy staying at the site in the holidays, dented the confidence of prospective parents.

Hiatus

From a Catholic publication at the time:

The aim was to bring up the youth of the richer classes in the surroundings of comfort and refinement which belong to their station, to carry on the habits of home life, though at school; and especially to prepare the rising generation to take part in public life by the marked development of the system of self-government which has been carried out through the Woburn Parliament. The school has risen to number some eighty boys, and may be said to be at the height of its scholastic and social success, but it is to be closed.

This determination has been brought about by several causes, the accumulative strength of which has been thought to be conclusive, Mgr. Petre’s health has been seriously undermined by the incessant labours and anxieties which he has endured during the last seven or eight years. He has a genius for the management of boys and for school life, but his genius has had to originate the plans and develop and carry on everything but the scholastic tuition almost alone. The pressure has been excessive, and has threatened to be fatal, and self-preservation is man’s first instinct. It could only have been a question of time.

But why not obtain assistance? This we suppose was the unsuccessful part of the undertaking – the adequate and necessary kind of co-operation was not to be found; and a system so complicated and peculiar as that of Woburn could not, beyond a certain time, be carried on by one man; and the health of that man was visibly giving way. We believe that it is an open secret that the financial position of the school had become jeopardised through an unfortunate defalcation to the amount of some £20,000, and this was another source of anxiety added to the former; various urgent family reasons have also had their weight in forcing on but one conclusion.

Meanwhile, a Belgian Congregation of Josephite Brothers, who have a school at Croydon, were desiring to improve their position, and, after visiting Woburn some two or three months ago, were so much pleased with its position and appearance that they made an offer to purchase the whole property. Under all the circumstances it was thought prudent to accept this offer, ‘after the most careful and anxious consideration, and under the best advice’ to quote the words of Mgr. Petre’s circular to the parents of his scholars.

The sudden collapse of this educational experiment will be deeply regretted by many who had either a direct or personal interest in the new school, or who were watching its progress as men watch the working of a reform or the carrying out of a new idea. What it might have come to had circumstances been more propitious it is impossible to say.

As it is it has educated several young men who have won for themselves a high character and reflect great credit upon their school. It has started ideas and has, no doubt, to a greater or less extent influenced many of our educational establishments throughout the country, in that progress of which all admit the need. It has been a touching and a noble sight to see the heir to an old Catholic peerage throw aside all purely worldly and vain attractions and devote the best years of his life to the work of an educational reform, generously and sympathetically building up and courageously striking out on behalf of his ideal.

One who throws himself with entire devotion and energy into a great movement, and who uses all the means within his power in order to promote it, will be easily excused if here and there some little excess of zeal, or some momentary want of discretion may have given offence. But, though Mgr. Petre’s school will be closed within a month or two, and there will be no continuity between it and the new establishment which is to succeed to its princely grounds and its elegant structures, it will not wholly die. It will have left its mark, and its brief life of honest endeavour will be taken into account by all who have the problem of Catholic education at heart, and are seeking to reach a high standard.

If Mgr. Petre has done no more than emphasise the necessity of preparing Catholic youth to take part in the public life of the country, he deserves our lasting gratitude. The Parliament of Woburn has brought many a smile to the lips of critics and even of friends, but we cannot fail to recognise in it an earnest endeavour – bold and original – to teach boys self-control, self-government, and to fill them with an enthusiasm for the duties of public life. Woburn, as it seems to us, has been a genuine attempt in this direction. It has not been a home of luxury and indolence, still less of license and self-will. Those who have grown up within its walls, and those who are still within them, bear ample and decided testimony to the punctuality, exactness, and even punctiliousness of its discipline.

It will finally be asked, then, is the career of usefulness at an end? Is the experiment worked out, and are the remnants thrown aside? From what we can learn, this is far from being the intention of him who has had the courage to look facts in the face and accommodate himself to the inevitable. We believe that after Mgr. Petre has recovered his impaired health, he will continue to interest himself in education, which is the work of his choice. Under new conditions and in proportions suitable to the circumstances, he will face the question again and will devote his undoubted abilities, in part at least, to the training of Catholic youth for public life”.

Baron

Five weeks later, on 4 July 1884, William’s father died and he succeeded to the title as 13th Baron Petre of Writtle. Frederick John Coverdale was appointed as land Agent almost immediately upon the succession of the 13th Baron. In a letter dated 13 July 1884, Frederick Coverdale wrote “In the pressure which has naturally followed the death of your dear father, I am afraid that I have failed to thank your lordship for the honour and favour you have conferred upon me by the appointment to the Agency of the Estate. I have always aspired to the post which my father and his father before him held and, though I cannot adequately thank your lordship for your kindness, I will nevertheless endeavour by deeds rather than words to promote your interest and by this means show my wish to be grateful”.

At about this time Mgr. Petre must have been considering the possibility of opening another school in which he might continue the work upon which he had set his heart. Could the following letter have had some bearing upon this? Dated 29 July 1884, from lord Petre to his Agent, it reads, “I wish to say with regard to our discussion on the garden bench, that you must take no alarm. I will take no step except under advice and in such a way as not to alarm you as to the future. My only wish is (if it be possible) to centralise all my work and energies; and to act for the dignity of my family. But I must make you my confidant and so I have told you what I have”.

Northwood Park

1884 nonetheless saw the beginning of Mgr. Petre’s new school at Northwood Park on the Isle of Wight. His lordship’s great love of children was well known and one can appreciate his desire to continue his efforts to provide something a little more inspired for the sons of his contemporaries. He seemed to be beset by the current disaster of decline in numbers on roll. He writes on 10 January 1885:

I am ready, if you like; to take your two sons into my school at £35 each i.e. £70 for the two. I make this offer because I am quite sure that, whatever the shortcomings of my school, it is far better than St. Edmund’s can possibly be. But you are of course wholly at liberty to do as you like without the least offence to me. I have suffered another threatening of misfortune as to the loss of boys this morning and I am really afraid that if fortune does not turn, I shall be driven to lunacy, and so to the end of all. My friends must spare no effort to help me. But my grief and worry are tremendous and to me inexplicable in their intensity”.

Mr. Coverdale’s reply was:

"Mrs. Coverdale and I have to thank your lordship for your very kind offer with regard to the two boys which we fully appreciate and shall duly consider. For reasons, which I can better explain when I have the pleasure of seeing your lordship, I could not well remove them from Old Hall till after Midsummer. The boys would be only too glad to be again under your lordship”.

A further letter from Mgr. Petre, sent from Whitley Abbey, Coventry, is undated but signed ‘Petre’ so would have been written after July 1884 and probably towards the midsummer of 1885 when the school at Northwood House was about to be closed.

I think you had better arrange for the servants and horses to go back early next week. Please also arrange with Canon Bamber for the school children on Monday. I am not much better; yet I feel my illness is one of simple sickness and much increased by the terrible anxiety and apprehension I am suffering. From this I see no deliverance at all. I fear parents will not stand by me and that my school is dying in spite of itself and of me. Against this feeling there seems to be no remedy or relief, but some change in the stream of fortune which will reinstate the school, or which will give me absorbing occupation of a new kind The latter seems impossible: for the former I must strive as best I can. But the position as it is, is more painful than I can say”.

Mgr. Lord Petre then retired to The Hyde in Ingatestone, Essex; also, in 1885 the Duchy of Lancaster granted him the Liberty of Clare and the Manor of Arnolds. Eight years later, he died at the early age of 46. How much did the anxiety and frustration of those years of striving to attain an educational ideal contribute to his early demise? Why was he not supported in his venture by the nobility of the day for whose children he was attempting to provide a new departure in Catholic education? He was a man of simple tastes and all who knew him spoke well of him. He was kind to his tenants, to the poor and especially to the young.

Burials

Canon Last remained at Ingatestone until his death in 1892, becoming a major figure in the rebirth of Essex Catholicism in the 19th century.

H. W. King in his ‘'Eccl. Essex’' mentions that on his visit to Ingatestone he found the large burial vault open, adding

The coffins are very sumptuous, those of the Peers covered with crimson velvet upon each of which a gilt coronet was set. One was of enormous size, designated as that of the great Lord Petre, though it probably enclosed two other coffins

He says also one or more were covered with blue velvet.

For many generations the family were buried in the vault of Ingatestone Church chancel, even the anabaptised infant of an hour-old who died in London; but on the completion of the mortuary chapel at Thorndon, about 1860, a number of the coffins were removed there.

Dr. Earle, of Brentwood, who was at that time doctor to the family, was requested to be present at the removal. He recounted how the coffin of the unfortunate James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater was opened, and the head clearly seen to have been severed from the body, but in a few minutes the whole body faded away into dust.