Born around 1495, Anne Browne lived through a significant period in English history, witnessing the tumultuous events of the Tudor era.
Browne's influence and status within the noble circles of Tudor England afforded her a notable position in historical records.
Anne brought Petre a marriage portion of £280 [2] from the lease of an estate at Dunton near East Horndon, and from manors in Cambridgeshire and Hampshire.
She and Petre had three sons and two daughters: Anne survived Petre by many years and (like him in his final years) was a covert Catholic; she lived on at Ingatestone Hall, and there received and sheltered many of the seminary priests, whose presence was strictly forbidden in England by Elizabeth's law at that time.
He returned to France by the end of the year, but it was not long before he was back in England and at Ingatestone Hall, where he passed as Lady Petre's steward and acted as her confessor.