Anne was born in 1509 (her portrait states "aged 58" in 1567) the daughter of Sir William Browne, a London merchant who died (one of the few to do so) during his term as Lord Mayor of London in 1514; his widow, the daughter of Henry Kebyll, subsequently became the third wife of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. A book of hours given to her by Lord Mountjoy, who was both her stepfather and her uncle by marriage (Mountjoy's sister Constance was the mother of Anne's first husband), is in a private collection at Beeleigh Abbey.

Anne was married first to John Tyrell, son of Sir Thomas Tyrell of Heron Hall, widow of William's first wife's kinsman, Thomas Tyrell and a distant cousin of John Tyrell, (Anthony Tyrell was the second Lady Petre's nephew). By March 1542 Anne had married William bringing him an increase in income of £280, from the lease of a farm at Dunton near East Horndon, and from manors in Cambridgeshire and Hampshire. By William, she had two daughters and three sons, of whom two died young.

   * Thomasine, whose husband, Ludovic Greville, met with a tragic fate. He was twice summoned before the Privy Council, first for a violent assault on Sir John Conway, then, ten years later, for fraud. Finally, he appeared before Warwickshire Assizes in 1589 as an accomplice in two separate murders. At last, he did the decent thing; had he been convicted, his estate would have been confiscated, leaving his wife and children destitute. Instead, he refused to plead, the penalty for which was the peine forte et dure – being pressed to death by heavy weights.
   * Katherine.
   * John (1549–1613) was knighted in 1576, sat in Parliament for Essex in 1585–1586, and was created Baron Petre of Writtle, Essex, by James I on 21 July 1603.

-------------------- Anne Browne, 1509-March 10, 1582, was the daughter of Sir William Browne of Flambard’s Hall (1467-1514), Lord Mayor of London in 1507-8 and again in 1513/14, and Alice Kebel (1482-June 8, 1521). Through remarriage, Anne's mother became Lady Mountjoy and was at court. Anne's first husband was John Tyrrell of Heron, Essex (d.1540). Her second, to whom she was married by March 1542, was Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall, Essex (1505- January 13, 1572). Curiously, the Oxford DNB entry for William Petre calls Anne the daughter of John Tyrrell and the widow of William Browne of Flambard's Hall, but the life dates of both men make this impossible. The confusion may be explained by the fact that William Petre's first wife was Gertrude Tyrrell (d. May 28, 1541), daughter of Sir John Tyrrell of East Horndon and Warley, Essex (d. 1540). My thanks to Adrian Channing for pointing this out to me. All accounts agree that she brought to the marriage a dowry of £280 a year. By her second marriage, Anne had several children: Thomasine (April 7, 1543-1611+), Catherine, Edward (d. yng), Sir John (1549-October 11, 1613), William (d. yng), and Anne (1557-1610). One record also appears to give her a daughter named Griselda, perhaps from her first marriage. Petre was in royal service to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. In 1561, he entertained Queen Elizabeth at Ingatestone and from 1564-66 he and his wife were responsible for keeping Lady Catherine Grey under house arrest there. As a widow, Anne remained at Ingatestone Hall and there sheltered a number of seminary priests. She was on the list of recusants for 1582 but she died before any official action was taken against her.