Author: Petre, John
Biography:
PETRE, John (1773-1854: findmypast.com)
Trifles, by “John Petre, Esq.” was published by subscription in 1823 with a dedication to Lady Caroline Lamb and a subscribers’ list that features members of the aristocracy and gentry as well as public figures such as MPs. The same name appears in newspapers of the time as a Norfolk landowner, John (or “Jack”) Petre Esq. of Westwick House, a prominent member of commissions, committees, and charitable institutions. But he had been born on 14 May 1773 and baptised at Portsmouth, Hampshire, on 26 July 1776 as John Varlo. (The name “Jackson” Varlo on the baptismal certificate is corrected to “John.”) His parents were William Varlo and Elizabeth Petre, who had married at Westwick on either 23 July or 11 Aug. 1763. John Varlo became an army officer, appointed ensign in the light dragoons in 1795 and rising to captain in 1800. In 1797 he was also Lt.-Col. of the temporary regiment of Norfolk Fencibles. At some point, he took the name Petre as heir to the estate of his uncle John Berney Petre (1741-1819), who died without issue. He married as John Petre of Westwick on 19 Oct. 1802 at Gunton with Hanworth, Norfolk; his bride was the Hon. Catharine or Catherine Harbord, and they had two children, a daughter Mary and a son John Berney. The Censuses of 1841 and 1851 show them as resident at Westwick House, although in 1851, where his occupation is given as Landowner and Magistrate, her name is unaccountably recorded as Susannah. He died at Westwick on 1 Dec. 1854 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Botolph’s, Westwick; she was buried in the same place on 13 Aug. 1857, and there is a memorial tablet to them both on the north wall of the chancel. (findmypast.com 24 Sept. 2023; ancestry.com 24 Sept. 2023; British Neptune 27 Mar. 1820; Norwich Mercury 15 July 1826, 13 Dec. 1828) HJ