Catherine Stourton, Baroness Stourton (previously Catherine Petre, Baroness Petre, née Walmesley; 6 January 1697 – 31 January 1785), was a rich Lancastrian heiress.
Born into a long-established Lancashire family of Catholic landed gentry, she was the daughter of Bartholomew Walmesley and Dorothy Smith.
Lady Petre was an ardent Jacobite who had been considered as a possible spouse for Bonnie Prince Charlie and even James Stuart “the Old Pretender”.
The marriage was cut short by Lord Petre's death from smallpox a year later.
She was a woman of great charity and is said to have caused embarrassment to both families by cutting up her former husband’s parliamentary robes for distribution to the poor.