To a greater or lesser extent, he was responsible for new churches in Brentwood, Chipping Ongar, Barking, Romford and Chelmsford and a mortuary chapel (designed by William Wardell, a pupil of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin) in the grounds of Thorndon Hall (dedicated on 11 September 1857, and used last for interment in 1965), as well as twice extending the chapel at Ingatestone Hall, which then served as the parish church for the locality.
If this sounds unlikely, besides the Swiss Guard, Pius had another bodyguard called the Zouaves in which it was customary for young Catholic gentlemen, disqualified from becoming officers in the British Army, to serve.
With the departure of Pius' allied forces of the Second French Empire at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870), the Papal States could offer little resistance to the Italian Army and fell.
The young John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton spent a weekend at Thorndon; he had been invited because Lady Petre had a bevy of "Good looking and divinely tall" daughters to marry off.
William almost certainly commissioned a large group of furniture, now at Ingatestone, in the latter part of the 19th century, possibly replacing items destroyed in the fire.
[citation needed] However much apart from noble court the Petres may have kept themselves, they seem to have been popular in the vicinity, and kind and liberal neighbours, for they are not infrequently referred to by travellers, and Daniel Defoe writes of them in his A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–1726).
'From hence [Lees Priory], keeping the London Road, I came to Chelmsford, mentioned before, and Ingatestone, five miles west, which I mention again because in the Parish Church of this town are to be seen the ancient monuments if the noble family of Petre whose seat and large estate lie in the neighbourhood, and whose family, by constant series of beneficent action to the poor, and bounty upon all charitable occasions, have gained an affectionate esteem through all that part of the county, such as no prejudice of religion could wear out, or perhaps ever may – and I must confess need not, for good and great actions commend our respect, let the opinions of persons be otherwise what they may'.
Owing to the nature of the ceremonies and the necessity of commencing at an early hour, it was impossible to accommodate a large congregation at the consecration of the church.
While the new church at Romford will be a lasting monument of your Lordship’s generous zeal, these few lines may serve as its inscription; to record the gratitude of a poor congregation, through one whose joy it is fully to share it, and whose duty it is to express it.