Henry Petrie (antiquary)

Petrie was the son of a schoolmaster in Stockwell, Surrey. Through Thomas Frognall Dibdin, a pupil at the school, he was introduced to George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, who encouraged his early works on historic buildings. Petrie became a close friend of Dibdin, and helped with his bibliographical work.^[1][2]

On the death of Samuel Lysons in 1819, Petrie was appointed keeper of the records in the Tower of London. He had already revived an old idea of John Pinkerton for a major collection of historical material. Consultation with Earl Spencer led to the conclusion that government support would be needed, and Petrie was asked to draw up a plan. It was presented to the Record Commission in 1821, and was approved by the government and parliament.^[1]

The work began in 1823, with Petrie as chief editor, assisted by John Sharpe (1769–1859), his brother-in-law.^[2] The Welsh portion was given to John Humffreys Parry (killed in the street in 1825)^[3] and Aneurin Owen, and was published in 1841. The main portion entrusted to Petrie proceeded steadily until 1832, when it was interrupted by his illness.^[1]

In 1835, when the text of the first volume had been completed, the work was suspended by the record commissioners.^[1] Francis Palgrave had criticised the approach, which followed that of Martin Bouquet, and divided texts into extracts arranged chronologically.^[2]