John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett

John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett, (1585 – 20 March 1649) was an English sailor and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1621 and was later raised to the peerage.

Poulett was the son of Sir Anthony Poulett or Paulet, Governor of Jersey, and Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth and of Catherine Nooreys, daughter of the Baron of Rycot, Henry Lord Norreys. He was educated at University College, Oxford and was admitted as a student of the Middle Temple in 1610. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1610 and 1614, and for Lyme Regis in 1621.

Poulett was raised to the peerage as Baron Poulett of Hinton St George, Somerset on 23 June 1627. He served on the fleet to secure English commerce and bullion ships from Dutch raiding expeditions. As war loomed in England, he put his signature, together with those of other Lords and Councillors, to a declaration disavowing any intention by King Charles I to wage war against the Parliament, but as hostilities broke out he sided, on 15 June 1642, with the Royalist cause. He was one of the principal commanders at the siege of Lyme in Dorset. At war's end, Parliament gave him a pardon, but his house was constrained to settle a large sum in reparations. He died on 20 March 1649.^[1]

Poulett married Elizabeth Ken of Ken Court in Somerset. His son John succeeded to the barony. His daughter Florence married Thomas Smith of Long Ashton and was the mother of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Baronet.^[2]

References

1. ^ Arthur Collins, Peerage of England, F. C. and J. Rivington, 1812, pp.9–10
2. ^ John Burke, John Bernard Burke A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies

• Dictionary of National Biography