William Petyt (1641?–1707) was an English lawyer and writer, a political propagandist in the Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 interest.

Life

He was born at Storiths, Bolton Abbey

Bolton Abbey

Bolton Abbey is the estate within which is located the ruined 12th-century Augustinian Bolton Priory in North Yorkshire, England. It gives its name to the parish of Bolton Abbey.-Bolton Priory:...

. He was educated at Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton

Skipton

Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...

 and Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

. He was admitted to the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known 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 and Lincoln's Inn...

 but was later associated with the Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

.

He was Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

. He replaced in that position Robert Brady

Robert Brady (writer)

Robert Brady was an English academic and historical writer supporting the royalist position in the reigns of Charles II of England and James II of England. He was also a physician.-Biography:...

, who had made a very effective attack for the Tories on Petyt's Antient Right. Petyt was attacked also from his own side, the Whigs, by Thomas Hunt.

Historian

He wrote against the separation of powers

Separation of powers

The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...

, and in favour of Parliament's control of the judiciary

Judiciary

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

. Influential in its time, in particular on John Locke

John Locke

John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

, was a version of 'ancient constitutionalism' compounded of the writings of John Sadler, James Tyrrell

James Tyrrell (writer)

James Tyrrell was an English author and Whig political philosopher.-Life:James Tyrrell was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Tyrrell and Elizabeth Ussher, the only daughter of Archbishop James Ussher. His younger sister Eleanor married the deist Charles Blount...

 and Petyt.

Modern verdicts on Petyt as historian have been harsh. David C. Douglas

David C. Douglas

David Charles Douglas was a historian of the Norman period at the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. He joined Oxford University in 1963 as Ford's Lecturer in English History, and was the 1939 winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Works:* William the Conqueror: The Norman...

 comments that he with William Atwood

William Atwood

William Atwood was an English lawyer, known also as a political and historical writer.-Early life:William Atwood was son and heir of John Atwood of Broomfield, Essex...

, though distinguished jurists, "took what was worst" from the earlier works of their century on constitutional history. J. H. Plumb

J. H. Plumb

Sir John Harold Plumb, FBA , known as Jack, was a British historian, known for his books on British 18th century history. He wrote over thirty books.-Biography:...

wrote that it was hard not convict Petyt, "not only of error, but also of deceit".

Works

• The Antient Right of the Commons of England Asserted (1680)
• The Pillars of Parliament (1681)
• Political Arithmetick (1690)
• Miscellanea Parliamentaria
• Jus Parliamentarium

External links

• Petyt Hall, Chelsea