[Illustration] Paulet, in the hundred of North Petherton in this
county, gave name to this historical family, the first on record
being Sir William de Paulet, who died in 1242. He was of Leigh in
Devonshire, which, with Rode in Somersetshire, successively became
the family seat. Hinton St. George, which came from the heiress of
Denebaud in the reign of Henry VI., is noticed by Leland as "a right
goodly manor place of fre stone, with two goodly high tourres
embattled in the ynner court," and has ever since remained the seat
of this the elder branch of the family. The Marquesses of Winchester
(1551) and the extinct Dukes of Bolton descend from William second
son of Sir John Paulet of Paulet, who died in 1378. They were of
Basing in Hampshire, derived through the heiress of Poynings from
the great house of St.John, in the reign of Henry VI.
See Leland's Itinerary, ii. fol. 55, vi. fol. 11; Brydges's Collins,
ii. 367, iv. 1; Collinson's History of Somersetshire, ii. p. 165.
For an account of Hinton St. George, the Topographer, vol. i. p.
171, vol. ii. p.354. For Basing, Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 680.
ARMS.--_Sable, three swords in pile, their points towards the base,
argent, the pomels and hilts or. Gules, a pair of wings conjoined in
lure argent_, being the coat of his mother the heiress of Reyney,
was borne by Sir John Paulet in the 15th of Richard II.
Present Representative, William Poulett, 6th Earl Poulett.