He was the son of a dancing master and intended to follow in the same profession.
In 1819 he was appointed Keeper of the Records at the Tower of London.
Petrie also made a Survey of Southern English Churches in 1800 for which he produced drawings in pencil and watercolour.
Antiquary; appointed keeper of the records in the Tower of London, 1819; projected a `corpus historicum' for early English history, one volume of which, edited by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, appeared in 1848.