Sir Peter Pett (1630 – 1699) was an English lawyer and author.

Life

Peter Pett, son of Peter Pett (1593 – 1652), master-shipwright at Deptford, grandson of Peter Pett of Wapping, shipbuilder, and great-grandson of Peter Pett (died 1589), was baptised in St. Nicholas Church, Deptford, on 31 October 1630. He was educated in St. Paul's School and at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1645. After graduating BA he migrated to

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

, and in 1648 was elected to a fellowship at All Souls'. He then graduated BCL in 1650, was entered as a student at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, and settled there "for good and all" about a year before the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

. From 1661 to 1666 he sat in the Irish Parliament as MP for

Askeaton Askeaton (, Waterfall of Géitine, also historically spelt Askettin), is a town in County Limerick, Ireland. The town on the N69, the road between Limerick and Tralee, is built on the banks of the River Deel some 3 km upstream from the e ...

. He was called to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

from the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1664. When the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

was formed, in 1663, Pett was one of the original fellows, elected on 20 May, but was expelled on 18 November 1675 for "not performing his obligation to the society". He was probably absorbed in other interests. He had been appointed Advocate-General for Ireland, where he was knighted by the

Duke of Ormonde The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland. History of Ormonde titles The earldo ...

.Laughton 1896, p. 105. Pett died on 1 April 1699. He has been often confused with his father's first cousin, Peter,

Commissioner of the Navy The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the ...

at Chatham.

Works

He was also much engaged in literary work, more or less of a polemical nature. A short tract, headed ''Sir Peter Pett's Paper, 1679, about the Papists'', is in the Public Record Office.''Shaftesbury Papers'', ii. 347. His published works are: # ''A Discourse concerning Liberty of Conscience'', London, 1661,

8vo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

. # ''The Happy future Estate of England'', 1680, fol.; republished in 1689 as ''A Discourse of the Growth of England in Populousness and Trade … By way of a Letter to a Person of Honour''. # ''The obligation resulting from the Oath of Supremacy …'', 1687, fol. He edited also the ''Memoirs of Arthur'' nnesley ''Earl of Anglesey'', 1693, 8vo, and ''The genuine Remains of Dr. Thomas Barlow, late Lord Bishop of Lincoln'', 1693, 8vo.

Sources

* Knight's ''Life of Colet'', p. 407; * Foster's ''Alumni Oxonienses''; * Wood's ''Athenæ'', iv. 576; * St. Paul's School Registers, p. 43; * Burrows's ''Worthies of All Souls, pp. 476, 540.

References

Bibliography

* * Laughton, J. K.; Kelsey, Sean (2004)
"Pett, Sir Peter (''bap.'' 1630, ''d.'' 1699)"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. n.p.

External links