Robert Petre, 9th Baron Petre

Robert Edward Petre, 9th Baron Petre (March 1742 in Ingatestone Hall – 2 July 1801) was a British peer.

Lord Petre was the son of Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre (1713–1742), a renowned horticulturist, and Lady Henrietta Anna Mary Barbara Radclyffe (1714–1760), daughter of the 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (1689–1716) who was the grandson of Charles II by his mistress Moll Davis.

Lord Petre was a member of the English Roman Catholic nobility, a philanthropist and responsible for employing James Paine to design a new Thorndon Hall and a house in Mayfair.

Lord Petre was born just three months prior to the death of his father, at the age of 29, from smallpox. He was born to an inheritance of exceptional wealth and influence. The claim that he was one of the dozen richest men in the Kingdom is probably fanciful but his estates were certainly extensive. His ancestor, Sir William Petre, had acquired some 45,000 acres (180 km²), chiefly in Essex and the West Country. To this Sir William’s son, John, added a further 14,500 acres (59 km²). Furthermore, his grandmother was Catherine Walmesley, who had inherited the whole of her family’s large estates in Lancashire and Surrey which, at the time of her marriage, were reputed to be worth £7,000 per annum.

There is a disappointing lack of personal writings and correspondence in the Petre family archive and so it is difficult to form a rounded impression of the man; legend has it that, in later life, he himself destroyed many of his personal papers. They bore witness to the acrimonious disputes which he was to have with the Roman Catholic hierarchy and which, in retrospect, he came to deeply regret. It is clear he was no great intellect; one now anonymous commentator is particularly unkind;

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