Edward Petre

Hon. Edward Robert Petre of Stapleton Park (28 September 1794 – 8 June 1848) was an English horse racer and politician.

Early life Petre was born on 28 September 1794 and came from an old, and prominent, English Catholic family, based at Writtle Park in Essex. He was the third, but second surviving son of Robert Edward Petre, 9th Baron Petre (1742–1801), whose peerage dated from 1603. His mother was Petre's second wife, the former Juliana Barbara Howard, who was 27 years younger than his father. Upon his father’s death in 1801, his mother was appointed his guardian.

Political career He became an alderman of York in 1829 and, from 1830 to 1831, Petre served as Sheriff of Yorkshire, and the Lord Mayor of York. He was the first Catholic sheriff to be appointed after emancipation, as George IV stated Petre was a "good fellow ... he had had some concerns with him in racing and he did not mind him."

In 1831, Petre was returned, unopposed, for Ilchester on Lord Cleveland's interest to succeed Michael Bruce. While in the House, he voted "to punish only those guilty of bribery at the Dublin election and against the censure motion on the Irish administration." Among her siblings were Henry Stafford-Jerningham, 9th Baron Stafford, the Hon. Sir George Stafford-Jerningham (who served as the British Minister to Sweden), the Hon. William Stafford-Jerningham (who served as the British Minister Resident at Lima in Peru).

In 1838, Petre sold Stapleton Park to John Watson Barton of Saxby Hall, who had previously rented the property, and it was where one of his daughters was born in 1835. The Hall remained in the Barton family until 1919 when it was sold again, before it was demolished in 1958 and the estate sold in divided lots.

Petre died on 8 June 1848 and left all his property to his wife, apart from a few small bequests mainly to Catholic charities.