Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
WILLIAM DE PAULET (22)
WILLIAM DE PAULET. Colin Winn in his The Pouletts of Hinton St George, has traced the father of John de Paulet to the fourth in a line of men named William de Paulet.[1] He was the son of an older William de Paulet.
He inherited from his father the estates of Pawlett in north Somerset and Legh Paulet in the parish of Hockworthy in Devon. He also held Cruk. This lay in the hundred of North Petherton, as did Pawlett, but it no longer exists. In 1303 he held Legh by the service of a knight’s fee and in 1366 had a moiety of Pawlett. Pawlett is a village 4 miles north of Bridgwater, in the Sedgemoor area.
There was a church in Pawlett in Saxon times. The font in St John the Baptist is a curious one. A plain Norman font stands on an inverted Saxon one, which is much more elaborate.
William had two sons. One, also named William, was of Street, near Glastonbury, and Littleton, 8 miles from Bath. This son died without issue. The other, John de Paulet, inherited the key family estates of Pawlett, Gotehurst and Legh Paulet, and extended his lands by marrying the heiress Elizabeth de Reigny.
William died around 1325 . This was the troubled time when Edward II was at odds with his barons, and Queen Isabella was plotting his overthrow.
[1] All genealogical information is from Winn, Colin G., The Pouletts of Hinton St. George (London: Research Publishing, 1976.)
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