18 Earls of Wiltshire. 



reign of Edward YI. Earl of Wiltshire, 19tla January 1550, and 

 Marquis of "Winchester, 12tli October 1551, in which latter dignity 

 the Earldom of Wiltshire has been ever since, and is now merged. 

 Sir WiUiam Paulet, Powlett, or Poulett, Knight, was descended 

 of an ancient family which for a long period were connected with 

 the county by property. William Paulet second son of Sir John 

 Paulet or Poulett, Knight, of Melcombe Paulet in the county of 

 Somerset, had by marriage with Eleanor, sister and heir of Elias 

 Delamere, Sheriff of Wilts in the 2nd year of Henry V., acquired 

 the Manors of Fisherton Delamere, Long-bridge Deverill, and 

 other estates in Wiltshire ; in which county the elder branch of 

 the family already possessed extensive estates, by the marriage of 

 Sir John Poulett of Goathurst with Elizabeth, daughter and heir 

 of Sir John Eeyney of Rowde and Sherston. Sir John Paulet, son 

 and heir of this first mentioned man'iage, died in 1470, leaving 

 his son and heir Sir John Paulet, K.B., who married Alice, 

 daughter of Sir William Paulett of Hinton St. George, Co. 

 Somerset, and had issue, 



Sir William Paulet, Knight, bokn circa 1483. 



The first notice we have of this eminent person is that he held 

 the office of Comptroller of the Royal Household to Henry VIII. 

 in 1533. At this time he must have been of mature age ; and being 

 but the younger son of a junior branch of his family, could only 

 have risen so high in the favor of the Sovereign by the exercise 

 of those qualities of sagacity and discretion which distinguished 

 him throughout the latter part of his long career. Having early 

 espoused the principle of the King's supremacy in Ecclesiastical 

 affairs, he was commissioned by Henry in the year above-mentioned, 

 in conjunction with Lord Rochford the brother of Queen Anne, to 

 attend the meeting of the Pope and the King of France in the 

 South of France, at which the questions then pending between the 

 Papal See and the King of England were to be discussed. A few 

 years later, in 1539, he was in reward for his services created Baron 

 St. John of Basing, a dignity to which he had something of an 

 hereditary claim, through his great grandmother, Constance de 



