Description:John Louis Petit (1801-1868) was a watercolour artist, architectural historian and clergyman. He was born at Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire in 1801, and was the eldest of ten children of the Reverend John Hayes Petit and Harriet Astley. After graduating from Cambridge in 1825, he was ordained in 1826 and started working as a curate, firstly in Lichfield and then in Essex until 1834. He then started to pursue his main interests of drawing and writing about church architecture. His first book, 'Remarks on Church Architecture' was published in 1841. Petit travelled widely but for lived in Lichfield for much of his life. In December 1868 Petit caught a chill while painting and shortly afterwards he died. He is buried in the family vault at St. Michael's Church, Lichfield.