Secretaries -the Legend of how it got its name ?

"Secretaries" so called because of the legend of when Queen Elizabeth 1 visited Bures in 1561 (Smallbridge Hall), her Secretary of State stayed in this property


Her Secretary of State at the time was "William Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley",
but did he really stay at Secretaries ?

Grade 11 Listed 14ct building

Origin of the name Secretaries,

No1
Queen Elizabeth 1, stayed at Smallbridge 11th -14th August 1561

Firstly we must consider, is it conceivable that the Queens Secretary of State, "William Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley" would have stayed in Bures,
Myself and others, consider this highly unlikely.
If the Queen urgently required the services of her Secretary of State, he would be near her side and most certainly within the same building
It`s not as though Smallbridge was short of rooms, which necessitated Cecil to staying some two miles way.

However, a former owner of Secretaries, considered a further possibility that it was named after another one of her aids, namely "William Petre"

William Cecil, Secretary of State from 1550 - 1553, shared the duty with William Cecil
William Petre, Secretary of State from 1544-1557
William Cecil, Secretary of State from 1558 - 1572. During 1560, Petre deputised for Cecil, whilst he was away in Scotland

William Petre`s home was at Ingatestone Hall near Chelmsford and by marriage, he had three sons and two daughters

Records indicate in the 1561 visit, "during her 76-day progress , Elizabeth visited among others, Sir William Petre at Ingatestone, Lord and Lady Rich at Lees Priory, Sir Ralph Sadler at Standon, and the towns of Colchester, Harwich, Hertford, and Ipswich

A further reference states: ..............An example is the case of the queen's two visits to Ingatestone Hall, the Essex home of
Sir William Petre and his wife, Anne, Lady Petre. On the first occasion in July 1561, Chambers names Sir William Petre as host, but we know from studies of the visit that Lady Petre prepared their residence and helped entertain the queen.

If Lady Petre entertained the Queen, where was Petre?

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No2
Another reference :-Further details come from the accounts kept by John Kyme, chief officer to Sir William Petre, during the queen's visit to Ingatestone for four days.

Queen Elizabeth would have been well aquainted with the Waldegraves, as Sir William Waldegrave (1540 – 1613) was an English Member of Parliament

The question being, as Petre would have known the Waldegraves, in 1561 did he join her entourage at Ingatestone to visit Smallbridge Hall ?

If so, did Cecil her current Secretary of State stay at Smallbridge by her side, whils`t Petre came into the village to stay ?

Later in 1570, William Petre son John Petre (1549 -1613), married Mary daughter of Edward Waldegrave in 1570
This Edward was the grandson of Sir Edward Waldegrave of Bures

By Queen Mary, Edward was knighted, and he received from her the Manor of Chewton in Somerset, now the residence of Earl Waldegrave. He was a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Later, Edward was imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason and died in 1561, the same year as the Elizabeths visit to Essex and Suffolk.

Again it seems totally plausible that "Petre" knew Edward, being a Member of Parliament and being imprisioned in the Tower.

However by 1578, "Petre" has links by his sons marriage, into the Waldegrave family

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No3
The History of Bures by the Bures WI ,1951

Quote:- Queen Elizabeths secretary Walsingham is supposed to have stayed at "The Secretaries" in Bures village when the Queen stayed at Smallbridge. Some people say it was really an earlier Kings Secretary who owned the house and its lands and not Walsingham

It could not have been Walsingham because:- "Sir Francis Walsingham (c. 1532 – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".

But this story does throw up the possibility of an ealier royal secretary, who has some connection wit the property in Station Hill.

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The current owners of Ferriers are the Petre family, Hugh and Sara.
Their descendants are none other than William Petre.

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Ref:- "The Portable Queen, Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony" by Mary Hill Cole
Ref:- The History of Bures by the Bures Womens Institute 1951