three played a part as the initial trustees in the founding of Friars School, Bangor. Reign of Elizabeth I In the first decade after the 'Act of Settlement', 1559, there was a broad toleration of Catholics and they maintained their positions but in ever decreasing numbers. Once again, to save his place, Sir William had to change his religion, as did so many others; but he was becoming old – he had all the property he could desire, his health was failing, and politics no longer attracted him as in his younger days. On Elizabeth's accession, Petre was one of those charged to transact all business before the queen's coronation, and was still employed on various state affairs, but his attendances at the council became less frequent. In March 1559, he wrote to William Cecil that he would attend him at the Court if necessary, but wishes to be excused because of the disease of his leg he did however still deputise for Secretary Cecil during the summer of 1560, when Cecil was in Scotland. However, he still had many years of official life before him. He resided much at Ingatestone Hall in those later days, and he can be found writing from there in 1561 about the Portuguese restrictions on English merchants in the Indies. One of Petre's last public duties was to take charge of Lady Catherine Grey at Ingatestone Hall in 1564–1566. Katherine, a younger sister of the ill-fated Lady Jane, had married the Earl of Hertford without Queen Elizabeth's consent. Elizabeth was furious. The care of her seems to have been the last public charge undertaken by William Petre: from 1566 he practically retired and devoted himself to his charitable foundations. He wrote again to Cecil that he was too ill to go abroad, though recovered of his fever, and wished to retire "to my poore house at Ingatestone", where he thinks the open air would do him good. Retirement Thomas Larke in a Survey of the estate in 1566 describes the circumstances of acquiring Ingatestone: Unlike both the Treshams of Rushton and the Fitzwilliams of Milton, the Petres had no difficulty in adjusting the scale of their entertainment and hospitality to the family's reduced income after Sir William's retirement from Court. The Petres were safely removed from both the temptations and the gains of the Court, and in every respect, the nature of their estates