The earliest record I have found of the Petulengro name was in 1740. An entry in the records of a ‘Workhouse’ in Liverpool, it mentions a woman and three children, two boys and a girl. The age of the children was entered as ‘probably 4 or 5 years old. Someone (no mention of who) paid the workhouse keeper two sacks of groats (crushed oats) and a keg of rum for their release. It is presumed they originally arrived in Liverpool by ship, probably as stowaways and when caught were sent to the workhouse. I can find no further mention of the family name until the 1800’s when a one ‘Zacharius Petulengro’ appeared in a London court house charged with horse theft and served 6 months in prison as he could not pay the fine of 2 guineas. There are of course many references Petulengro in the ‘Gypsy’ books ‘Lavengro’ and Romany Rye’ by  George Borrow in which he immortalised Jasper Petulengro. According to my Grandfather ‘Jasper (also known as Ambrose) and his wife ‘Sanspirella’ were his Grandparents, although, to date, I cannot substantiate this claim, finding true information about the family is not easy because as you probably know, they were for the most part illiterate so nothing was ever written down, just passed on by word of mouth whilst sat round the ‘Hog’ (open fire) in the evenings. As with every story that gets passed on by mouth, it changes a little with each telling until it becomes difficult to tell fact from fiction. Grandfather could read and write but the only surviving written records I have are the original manuscripts of his books which were handed back to me by the respective publishers. Even today there are a few people using the Petulengro name who are not entitled do so, but most are either born or married to the name and are proud to keep the long line of true Petulengro Romany Gypsies alive and thriving.

Was one of the very few Gypsies at the time to learn to read and write and in one of his books  he claims this was down to a well known British Admiral, Admiral A. K. Wilson, V.C. (and his Sister), and although he was quite friendly with the Admirals Sister they had no part in his education. I now know that it was really with the help of a farmers wife (Mrs Martha Clark)in Whiteheaven, Cumbria (where the family spent several winters, the men working around the farm in exchange for the use of a barn and grazing the horses. The women would go round the surrounding villages hawking lace, clothes pegs and telling fortunes.  Life was hard in those days, I know because I was brought up in a horse drawn wagon just like the one at the top of this page.

Xavier is my maternal Grandfather, better known to the general public as just ‘Gypsy Petulengro’. He also later became known as the ‘Broadcasting Gypsy’ through his regular spots on the BBC’s ‘In Town Tonight’ broadcasts in the 1930’s and 40’s.  The amazing thing is, my Great Grandmother  prophesied on her death-bed that he (her Son Xavier) would speak to millions who would never see his face.  When she died radio was still only in the experimental stages and was something of which she had never heard about. He also went on to write ‘Your Fate in the Stars’ in the well known newspaper of the time ‘The Sunday Chronicle’ and became a very good friend of the respected astrologer ‘Edward Lyndoe’ who wrote for many years in the ‘People & Sunday Express’ newspapers.

He was born in Lancashire in 1859 and died in Sussex on the 16th June 1957 at the age of 98 and is buried in Viney Hill Churchyard in the Forest of Dean, the service being conducted by the Reverend George Waddington-Jones . In fact he attracted just as much publicity in death as he did in his life, with National Newspapers and the ‘Pathe News’ all covering the proceedings at his funeral where several thousands of people gathered from all over the country to say their last goodbyes to the man they had admired and followed for so many years. During his long life, of which I have some very happy memories, he wrote several books on such subjects as Romany Herbal Remedies, Romany Law & Traditions, Reading Cards, Palms, Crystal, Tea Leaves, Astrology and his life story ‘A Romany Life’. Many of these original books are still available on the Internet through second hand booksellers and Ebay , Etc. And I still publish some of them too, occasionally making them available to my clients and members of the ‘Zodiac Circle of Friends’. He also started a mail order business selling Herbs and Herbal Remedies, many were old Romany remedies which he had manufactured by a large herbal medicine company called ‘Heath & Heather’ which I do believe is still going today. My wife and I ran ‘Petulengro’s Herbal Products’ right up until 1992, it had a very good run from 1937 to 1992, we took the decision to close it because of very complicated EU rules regarding alternative medicines.
His was a varied and interesting life starting out as a young man following his father into the Horse-trading business. He once joined the army to avoid  legal proceedings which was the result of a fight with a gamekeeper. He did in fact serve twice in the armed forces during his younger days. And my uncle Leon also served in the Royal Air Force for a number of years, he was the Petulengro responsible for the horoscopes in the ‘Woman’s Own’ magazine for more than 25 years.

Paul Petulengro

The 1937 Wedding of Uncle Leon &  Eileana

Cutting from the Bradford Telegraph & Argus

Two Trade Marks used by my Grandfather and myself

The newspaper cuttings here are from August 7th 1937  when during the annual Gypsy Carnival a real Romany wedding took place. The happy couple were my uncle Leon and his bride Eileana and the church ceremony was conducted by the Vicar of Baildon and afterwards the Romany rites were performed by my Grandfather Xavier Petulengro with the traditional cutting of wrists and mingling the blood, the binding of the couples wrists with a silken cord, the leaping over the flaming camp fire and terminating with the then married couple riding into the sunset  on a black stallion.  The wedding was covered by several newspapers of the day and the ‘Pathé News’ filmed it and was shown in Cinemas  throughout the country.

First edition cover from 1937

Double Romany Wedding on Baildon Moor 1938