Arms of the Earls Poulett.
Earl Poulett was a title in the
Peerage of England. It was created in
1706 for
John Poulett,
4th Baron Poulett. The Poulett family descended from Sir
Anthony Poulett, who served as
Governor of Jersey and as Captain of the
Guard to
Queen Elizabeth I.
His eldest
son Sir John Poulett
represented Somerset and Lyme Regis in the
House of
Commons
. In 1627 he was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron
Poulett, of Hinton St George
in the County of Somerset
. Lord
Poulett later supported the Royalist cause in the
Civil War. He was succeeded by his son,
the second Baron. He sat as
Member
of Parliament for
Stamford and later
fought as an officer in the Royalist Army in the Civil War. His
son, the third Baron, represented Somerset in Parliament and served
as
Lord-Lieutenant of
Dorset.
He was succeeded by his son, the fourth Baron.
He was a commissioner
for the Treaty of Union with
Scotland
. In
1706 he was created
Viscount Hinton and
Earl Poulett in the
Peerage of England. Lord Poulett later
served as
First Lord of the
Treasury and as
Lord
Steward of the Household. When he died the titles passed to his
eldest son, the second Earl.
He was summoned to the House of Lords
as Lord Poulett in his father's lifetime and also
served as Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset. He died unmarried and
was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Earl. He sat as
Member of Parliament for
Bridgwater and
served as
Lord-Lieutenant of
Devon. His son, the fourth Earl, was
Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset. He
was succeeded by his eldest son, the fifth Earl. On his death the
titles passed to his nephew, the sixth Earl. He was the third son
of
Vice-Admiral the Hon. George
Poulett, second son of the fourth Earl.
On the sixth Earl's death in 1899 a dispute arose over the
succession to the titles. The titles were claimed by William
Turnour Thomas Poulett, born to the Earl's first wife Elizabeth
Lavinia during her marriage to Lord Poulett. He was born within
wedlock and had styled himself "Viscount Hinton". His mother
claimed that the Earl was his father, but this was widely believed
to be untrue, including by the Earl himself (his father was instead
believed to be Captain William Turnour Granville). In 1903 the
Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords rejected William
Turnour Thomas Poulett's claim to the titles. This was an
interesting legal case as the House of Lords rejected the doctrine
of
pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant – that any child
born within wedlock is always believed to fathered by the husband
(see the
Earl of Banbury for a
similar case). The Committee for Privileges instead decided that
the rightful heir was the late Earl's son from his third marriage,
William John Lydston Poulett, who became the seventh Earl Poulett.
He fought in the
First World War as
a Captain in the
Royal Horse
Artillery and died on active service in 1918. He was succeeded
by his only son, the eighth Earl. He was childless, though married
thrice, and on his death in 1973 all his titles became extinct.
Lady Bridgett Poulett (1912-1975), the only
sibling of the 8th Earl, was considered to be one of the most
strikingly beautiful women of her time and generation.
The ancestral family
seat was Hinton House in the village of Hinton St George, Somerset. The Hinton Estate was sold by the
8th and last Earl Poulett in 1968 after which Lord and Lady Poulett
settled in Jersey, Channel Islands. Since the 8th Earl lacked
direct heirs and his sister Lady Bridget Poulett was childless,
Hinton House was later subdivided into luxury flats.
The family surname and the title of the earldom are pronounced
"Paulett".
Barons Poulett (1627)
Earls Poulett (1706)
References
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