Early Life and Family
Born about 1505 or 1506, Petre was one of the sons of John Petre, a farmer and tanner of a family long established at Tor Newton in Torbryan, Devon, by his marriage to Alice Colling, from nearby Woodland. Both of his grandfathers were franklins.
In 1519 Petre matriculated at the University of Oxford as a law student. He is claimed as a member of Exeter College, of which he was later a benefactor, but there is no evidence of him there as an undergraduate. In 1523 he became a Fellow of All Souls, of which he was law bursar in 1528/9. On 2 July 1526 he graduated Bachelor of both laws, and in 1527 and 1528 practised as a lawyer in Oxford.
One of his brothers, John Petre, later became the 'customer' (the comptroller or collector of customs) of the ports of Dartmouth and Exeter and was a member of parliament for Dartmouth in the Parliament of November 1554. Another brother, Richard, entered the church and became Archdeacon of Buckingham, while another, Robert Petre, became an auditor of the Exchequer.
Read more about this topic: William Petre
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“It is not enough that our life is an easy one. We must live on the stretch, retiring to our rest like soldiers on the eve of a battle, looking forward to the strenuous sortie of the morrow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is turning three hundred years
On our cisatlantic shore
For family after family name.
We’ll make it three hundred more”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)