A short biography of Sir William Petty who was born in Romsey 1623 and buried in Romsey Abbey 1687 Sir William Petty was a remarkable man and the ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne. He was born in Romsey, but soon outgrew the town and became variously a doctor and mathematician. During the Commonwealth period he went to Ireland and amongst other things, he arranged to map the island. He made a great deal of money and was a leading figure of the post-Commonwealth period, including being a founder member of the Royal Society. Peter Dale made a study of Petty and this book represents a distillation of his research.