William PAULET

(3rd M. Winchester)

Born: ABT 1532

Died: 24 Nov 1598

Buried: Basing, Hampshire, England

Father: John PAULET (2° M. Winchester)

Mother: Elizabeth WILLOUGHBY

Married: Agnes (Anne) HOWARD (M Winchester) 20 Jun 1544 / 10 Nov 1548

Children:

1. William PAULET (4° M. Winchester)

2. Anne PAULET

3. Catherine PAULET

4. Elizabeth PAULET

Associated with: Jane LAMBERT (dau. of William Lambert of Hide Street, Winchester)

Children:

5. William PAULET (Sir) (d. 3 Mar 1628/9)

6. Hercules PAULET (Sir) (b. 1574)

7. John PAULET (Sir)

8. Hector PAULET (b. 1578)


Son of John Paulet, second Marquess of Winchester, by his first wife, Elizabeth Willoughby. Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Queen Mary, 1553.Hants, commr. musters by 1576, jt. (with Henry Radcliffe, fourth Earl of Sussex)

He married Agnes Howard, daughter of William Howard, B. Effingham, by his first wife. The marriage were not entirely harmonious, and on one occasion it was only by the intercession of Queen Elizabeth that a reconciliation was effected (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1547-80, p. 534, &c.)

In 1576 William Paulet succeeded his father as third Marquess of Winchester, and Paulet lived until 1598. The second Marquess generously provided for his third wife, Winifred, including property and title of Marchioness. Paulet's son unsuccessfully sued to decrease her benefits. He complained that Winifred had used undue influence on his father when he made his will.

During that time England had no dukes and no other marquesses, so Winchester stood alone above the earls. And yet he received only twelve votes for the Garter during the entire period.

His record is particularly sad compared to that of his cousin Sir Hugh Paulet, who received twenty-eight votes in the last five years of his life, 1569-73. Sir Hugh's son, Sir Amyas Paulet received twenty-three votes in the period 1580-85. The Marquess of Winchester's problem was that he was a stay-at-home, whose best Garter year, four votes in 1580, coincided with his only significant office, Lord Lieutenant of Dorset.

In 1580 he became lord-lieutenant of Dorset, and in Oct 1586 was one of the commissioners appointed to try Mary Queen of Scots; he was lord steward for her funeral on 1 Aug 1587. In 1596 he was lord-lieutenant for Hampshire, and in 1597 first commissioner for ecclesiastical causes in the diocese of Winchester.

Jane Lambert was the long-time mistress of William Paulet, and the mother of his four illegitimate sons, William, John, Hercules, and Hector. Some genealogies also list a daughter, Susanna. They went by the surname Pawlett/Powlett/Poulet. In 1594, Ashmore Manor was put in trust for Jane and her children and she received other property as well. After her lover died, Jane married a young man of eighteen, Gerrard Fleetwood of Crawley, Hampshire (d. AFT 1647)

Sources:

Moore Peter R.: "The Earl of Oxford and the Order of the Garter"

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