John Petre's Middle Temple Account Book, 1567-1570

E.R.O. reference D/DP A17 - Facsimile & Transcript [This may be read in conjunction with 'Examples Of Secretary Handwriting' & 'Cracking the Code']

This is an early page from a detailed account of receipts and expenses of the son of Sir William Petre chiefly when John was at this Inn of Court in London. Arranged by year, it has sections for 'rewards', 'apparel', 'diet', 'extraordinary charges' and in 1570 'wyfe'.

The distinction between town and country are blurred. The distance of 23 miles between Ingatestone Hall, the family's country seat and London was easily covered by 'Barker' who brought the young man a letter from home. Curiously the language even then is of going 'up to London', no matter what the nature of the topography.

What was John Petre doing at the Middle Temple aged 17 years? Optimistic tradition has it that the sons of gentlemen were acquiring sufficient knowledge of the law to administer their family's estates and to prepare them to act as justices of the peace or local 'governors' in the localities. Certainly there is mention on this page of 'Mr.Mowlesworth reading law unto me'. And much good work may be done by this tutorial method. But the 'pessimistic' view of education, that formal training may not deliver the promised goods and instead has many an informal and yet significant concomitant has something to commend it, The Inns of Court were like a third university, (to Oxford and Cambridge), in that they took in young gentlemen in increasing numbers, who, in exchange for paying for supervision, tuition or accommodation, were able to mix with others like themselves of the 'better sort', to make connections. Besides law there were performances of plays in the halls of the Inns of Court, (Shakespeare's plays had an airing there). From a handy chamber in London, the latest music could be had, 'To Mr.Litchfielde's boy for bringing me a song for the lute 12d.'.

These accounts were written, it is believed, by John Bentley who was a young man of about the same age as his master John Petre, though of a much more modest background. Bentley was nevertheless trained up at Westminster school by the Petre family probably always with the intention to act as his personal steward now and later, when John Peter came into his estates. So for John Bentley these years are years spent in preparation too. It is not difficult to imagine the tight-lipped courtier-lawyer, Sir William overlooking the accounts periodically to see that they tallied. The little pin-pricks at the bottom right of the page are evidence of casting accounts on the old exchequer model.¹⁵

Children today have no difficulty in imagining what it was that seventeen year olds of substance would spend their money on in town. If they have elder brothers and sisters of this age, then "clothes", "music" and "the opposite sex" spring readily to mind as worthy objects of spending. The portrait of John Petre ascribed to the year 1595 supports the view that appearances mattered then as now. Being seen in fashionable places is the thing? The accounts finish with a silver side-saddle which was given to Mary Waldegrave who became his wife.¹⁶

What does the visitor to London do on the first day in town? Here John Petre pays a 'guide' to take him up to the top of old St.Paul's steeple, presumably to get the lie of the land. What of the paraphernalia of study? Where else should a young man of substance go for a desk than to approach the Queen's joiner?¹⁷

Middle Temple Account Book		Transcript