Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paulet, Amias (d.1538)
PAULET or POULET, Sir AMIAS or AMYAS (d. 1538), soldier, was son of Sir William Paulet of Hinton St. George, Somerset, by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Deneland of Hinton St. George. Connected with his family were the Paulets of Nunney Castle, Somerset. The common ancestor, Sir John Paulet of Paulet, lived in the time of Edward III. John Paulet (d. 1470?) of Nunney had, by Eleanor, daughter and coheiress of Robert Roos of Gedney and Irton, Lincolnshire, a son, Sir John Paulet (fl. 1500), who was a commander at the battle of Blackheath in 1497 (cf. Rot. Parl. vi. 541), and was made a knight of the Bath at the marriage of Prince Arthur on 14 Nov. 1501. He married Alice, daughter of Sir William Paulet of Hinton St. George, and by her had, among other children, William, marquis of Winchester [q. v.], who is separately noticed (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, ii. 369; Metcalfe, Knights, p. 35).
Amyas Paulet was brought up a Lancastrian. He was attainted after Buckingham's rebellion in 1483, and duly restored in 1485 (Rot. Parl. vi. 246, 273); on 5 Nov. 1485 he was appointed sheriff for Somerset and Dorset, and he was frequently in the commission of the peace. He was a very active and officious country gentleman, and there is doubtless truth in the tradition that when Wolsey came to take possession of the benefice of Lymington in Hampshire, Paulet clapped him in the stocks (Cavendish, Wolsey, ed. Singer, i. 6). He was knighted on 16 June 1487, after the battle of Stoke. When Perkin Warbeck's rebellion had failed, he was employed in collecting the fines of those implicated. He was one of the west-country gentlemen who had to meet Catherine of Arragon at Crewkerne on 17 Oct. 1501, when she was on her way to London.
In Henry VIII's time he began a military career, and commanded twenty-five men in the expedition to the north of France in 1513. But he seems to have been called to the bar, for in 1521 he was treasurer of the Middle Temple. Wolsey, now chancellor, in revenge for the indignity which Paulet had once put upon him, ordered Paulet not to quit London without leave; and so he had to live in the Middle Temple for five or six years. To propitiate Wolsey, when the gateway was restored, he placed the cardinal's badges prominently over the door. He was free in 1524, as in that year he was a commissioner to collect the subsidy in Somerset. He greatly improved the family mansion at Hinton St. George, and must have been rich, though he is said to have been in debt both to Henry VII and to Henry VIII. It is for this reason, perhaps, that on 30 April 1509 he appears as one who was excepted from the general pardon; he was pardoned, however, on 28 Aug. Paulet died in 1538. His will is printed in ‘Testamenta Vetusta.’ He married, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Paulet of Nunney Castle, Somerset, and sister of Sir John Paulet, mentioned above (by her he left no issue); secondly, Laura, daughter of William Kellaway of Roeborne, Hampshire. By her he left Sir Hugh Paulet [q. v.] and other children.
[Letters and Papers, Henry VIII; Metcalfe's Knights, p. 16; Collinson's Somerset, ii. 167; Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vii. 115, 145; Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta, p. 681; Letters, &c., of Richard III and Henry VII (Rolls Ser), i. 406, 407, ii. 76, 337; Campbell's Materials for Hist. of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.), i. 583.]