THE PEERAGE OF ENGLAND. EARLS. POULETT, EARL POULETT, HAVING treated of the original of this family in that of the Mar- Which Sir THOMAS Paulett, married Margaret, daughter and heir of Henry Boniton, Esq. by Alice his wife, daughter and heir of John de Boys, and had issue two sons, Sir William Paulett, and John Pauleft of Gothurst, in com. Somers.; also a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Robert Burton, and secondly to William Bigberye, Esquires. His eldest son, Sir WILLIAM Paulett (knighted by Henry VI. for his valiant behaviour in the wars of France) married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of John Deneband of Henton (commonly Hinton) St. George, in the county of Somerset, Esq. by whom he became possessed of that lordship, which came by the Giffards, who had it by the heir of Poutrals; and the Denebands were of Pescayth in Monmouthshire. John and George Powtrell owned Hinton St. George, in the reign of Rich. I. and K. John. The latter devised it to his only daughter and heir, married to John Giffard. His daughter and heir, Alice, married Sir Philip Deneband, whose son, William, gave a moiety of this manor, in 29 Henry III. to his brother Ha 1 Leland, in his Itinerary, mentions most of the above facts thus; "The eldest manor place of the Paulettes in Somersetshire is now clene downe. But yet it bereth the name of Paulette, and is a 3 miles from Bridgwater. There was one Denbaude in Somersetshire, a knight of good estimation about Henry the V. tyme, and this Denbaude gave this title in many of his writinges: Dominus de Postcuith in Gallia. One of the Paulettes married the heir general of this Denbaude, and so was the Paulettes landes welle augmented in Somersetshire. And Mr. Paulette's father that is now buildid stoutely at Henton in Somersetshire, the which longed in tyme past to the Denbaudes. Paulet, that is now, bought Sandforde lordship of the kinge. Paullet hath a nother lordship hard joyning to Sandford called Hawberton, and is well woodid, but Shelford hath little. Paulet of Somersetshire landes cummith thus together by heyres generales. By Roys cam Hawberton lordship. Then did Arundel and Paulet devide a peace of landes of the Cantelupes. Then cam a peace of land by Rayne, and a nother be Beauchamp of the West Countery, and after cam Henton, Denbaude's lande.d" Sir William had issue one son, Sir Amias Paulett; And four daughters, Christian, first married to Nicholas Chichester, secondly to Henry Hull, and thirdly to Willam Martin; Anne, wife of Sir William Cary of Cockington, Knight; Florence, to John Ashfield; and Alice, to Sir John Paulett, Knight, by whom she was mother to William, the first Marquis of Winchester. Which Sir AMIAS was knighted for his gallant behaviour at the battle of Newark on Trent, June 16th, 1487, when the Earl of Lincoln and Lambart Simnell were defeated. He was like. wise one of the commanders of those forces against Perkin Warbeck: and in 15 Hen. VII. bearing the title of one of the Knights of the king's body, was fcommissioned with Robert Shirburn, Dean of St. Paul's, in consideration of their loyalty, industry, foresight, and care, to receive all such persons into favour, as were adherents to Perkin Warbeck, by fine or otherwise, as to them shall seem nmost proper. This commission they managed so discreetly, that (as Hollinshed observes) & " Equity therein was very well and justly executed." d Leland's Itin. VI, 12. f Rymer's Fæd. tom. XII. p. 766. • Holinshead's Chron. p. 784. & Chron. p. 785. It is further memorable of him, that in the reign of Henry VII. when Cardinal Wolsey was only a school-master at Limington in Somersetshire, Sir Amias Paulett, for some misdemeanor committed by him, clapped him in the stocks: which the Cardinal, when he grew into favour with Henry VIII. so far resented, that he sought all manner of ways to give him trouble, and obliged him (as Godwin in his Annals observes) to dance attendance at London for some years, and by all manner of obsequiousness to curry favour with him. During the time of his attendance, being commanded by the Cardinal not to depart London without licence, he took up his lodging in the great gate of the Temple towards Fleet-street. And in 7 Henry VIII. when the Cardinal was made 'Lord-Chancellor, he re-edified the said gate (now called the Middle-Temple gate) and sumptuously beautified it on the outside with the Cardinal's arms, cognizance, badges, and other devices, in a glorious manner, thereby hoping to appease his displeasure. Having been so great a benefactor to the society of the Middle-Temple, hek was chosen Treasurer thereof in 12 Henry VIII. and departed this life in 1538. His last will bears date, April 1st, 1538, and the probate thereof June 25th following!. He orders his body to be buried in the church of Cherscomb, in com. Somersetshire, and was a benefactor to the cathedral church of Wells, and to the churches of Henton, Cherscomb, Chard, Crookhorne, Ylminster, South-Peterton, Dynington, and the abbey and convent of Ford. He bequeaths all his lands, goods, &c. to his son and heir Sir Hugh Paulet, Knight, whom he made sole executor, charging him to be loving to his sons John and Henry, and to help them to preferment. He married two wives, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Paulett, Knight of the Bath, (grandfather of William Marquis of Winchester); and sister to Sir John Paulett, who had married his sister Elizabeth; and secondly, Lora, daughter of William Kellaway, of Rockborn, in com. Southamp. Esq. but had issue only by the last, viz. the three sons mentioned in his will; and one daughter, Elizabeth, married first to John Sidenham, Esq.; secondly to William Carswell, of Carswell, in Devonshire, Esq.; and thirdly to Francis Coppleston, Esq. Sir HUGH Paulett, his eldest son, was knighted for his services in the French wars, at taking Brey at the siege of Boulogne, 1544, in the presence of Hen. VIII. In 30 Hen. VIII. in consideration of his services," he had a grant from the King, to him and his heirs, of the manor and borough of Samford-Peverell, in Devonshire; and on February 24th, 31 Hen. VIII. was made Supervisor of all the manors, messuages, lands, &c. belonging to Richard Whiting, late Abbot of Glastonbury, attainted. On May 11th, 33 Hen. VIII. he had a grant, to him and his heirs, of all the King's lands, tenements, woods, &c. called Upcrofte, and Combe, in Crukerne, in the county of Somerset. He was Sheriff of Dorset and Somersetshire, in 29 and 34 Henry VIII. and 1st of Edward VI. h P. 28. * Ibid. p 221. i Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 138. 1. Ex Regist. Dingley in Cur. Præreg. Cant. In 3 Edward VI he was pKnight-marshal of that army commanded by the Lord Russell (Lord Privy Seal), sent against the rebels of Devonshire and Cornwall, who had besieged the city of Exeter; and being defeated by the King's forces, fled into Somersetshire, where this Sir Hugh followed them, and at King'sWeston again vanquished them, and took their leader prisoner. For these services he was, the year following, made Governor of the Isle of Jersey, and of Mount-Orguil castle. In the 6th year of Q. Elizabeth, he was one of the principal commanders, who so valiantly defended Newhaven against the French; and when Montmorency, Constable of France, by a trumpet to the Earl of Warwick, summoned him to surrender, this Sir Hugh Paulett was sent by the Earl to assure the Constable, that the English were prepared to suffer the last extremity, before they would yield up the town without the Queen's orders. And when the forces were greatly reduced by the plague and pestilence, so that the Queen, in compassion to those brave soldiers that were living, gave directions to the earl of Warwick to surrender the town, Sir Hugh Paulett was the principal of the Commissioners that managed the conference with the Constable of France, for the capitulation. Dr. Fall, in his Account of the Island of Jersey, writes, That this Sir Hugh Paulett was Treasurer to Henry VIII.'s army at the siege of Boulogne; Governor of Havre de Grace, when the town was in the hands of the English; reputed one of the best and most experienced captains of his time, and a zealous promoter of the reformation in the Island of Jersey; of which he was m Priv. Sigil. 30 Henry VIII. • Priv. Sigil. 33 Henry VIII. 4 Rymer, tom. XV. p. 261. Bill. Signat. 31 Henry VIII. |