Amias Paulet
Encyclopedia
Sir Amias Paulet was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Life

He was the son of Sir Hugh Paulet and Philippa Pollard. His name is sometimes spelt 'Amyas'. In 1559 he was made Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
The Lieutenant Governor of Jersey is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a Crown dependency of the British Crown....

, one of the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

, his father being Governor. He kept this post until 1573. His father Hugh died that year, and Paulet was made Governor, a post he held until his death.

In 1576 Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 raised him to knighthood, appointed him Ambassador to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and at the same time put the young Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...

 under his charge. Paulet was in this embassy until he was recalled November, 1579. In 1579, he took into his household, the young Jean Hotman
Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul
Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul was a French diplomat. Although he came from a Calvinist family, who had been exiled during the Wars of Religion, Jean, through cultivating connections with Henry IV eventually was restored to a portion of his patrimony.-Early life:Hotman was the eldest son...

, son of Francis Hotman, to tutor his two sons Anthony and George. When the family returned to England, the tutor and his two charges settled at Oxford.

A fanatical Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 with a harsh character, Paulet was appointed gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Elizabeth in January 1585, replacing the more tolerant Sir Ralph Sadler
Ralph Sadler
Sir Ralph Sadler, PC, Knight banneret was an English statesman of the 16th century, and served as a Secretary of State for King Henry VIII.-Background:...

. He remained her keeper until Mary's execution at Fotheringhay Castle
Fotheringhay Castle
Fotheringhay Castle was in the village of Fotheringhay 3½ miles to the north of the market town of Oundle, Northamptonshire .King Richard III was born here in 1452 and it was also where Mary, Queen of Scots, was tried and executed in 1587....

 on 8 February 1587.

Paulet died in London on 26 September 1588 and was buried in the church of St Martin's-in-the-Fields. "When that church was rebuilt, his remains were removed, together with the monument, to the parish church of Hinton St. George".

Sir Amias Paulet came to Jersey when his father was made Governor in 1550 and was immediately made his assistant. The following year he was sent by his father to complain to the Privy Council that officials in Normandy were refusing to hand over six thieves who had escaped from Jersey. He was sent to Paris with a letter for the Constable of France, and thence to Normandy, returning ultimately to Jersey with his prisoners.

In 1556 he was formally appointed Lieutenant-Governor and by the end of the decade he was effectively running the island in his father's absence. There was much concern at this time about invasion by the French and Paulet went on a spying mission to the Brittany coast to discover for himself whether ships and troops were being gathered. Nothing happened because the death of the French king brought a temporary cessation to threats against the Channel Islands. However, relations with nearby Normandy were not good, as shown by a letter from Amias to his father:
"Mr St Aubin has been arrested by Mons Boisrougier of Coutances, and after fourteen days imprisonment dismissed with the loss of a goshwak and 20 ells of canvas. I wrote to this Monsieur for redress, but he answered he was sorry he had dismissed his prisoner, and that his stock was not better, advising me to look to myself, as he hoped to pluck me out of my house, as he had the Captain of Alderney. If I had the Queen's leave, I would ask no aid but the retinue of this Castle to pluck him out of his house".


Amias continued his father's work on strengthening Mont Orguiel Castle, despite the lack of funds available from Elizabeth. He wrote in 1557:
"Though I have husbanded Her Majesty's money well I have been constrained to employ more than I received, and our walls want a third part yet".
And in 1563:
"I am much deceived, considering the depth of the foundation, the height and thickness of the walls, if a greater piece of work hath ever been done for the like sum".
And again in 1573:
"A strong piece of work, begun four or five years ago, lacks completion of one third. Four hundred pounds will be needed this year and four hundred next."
Like his father, Amias was strongly anti-Catholic, although more Calvinist than protestant. When the first Huguenot refugees poured into Jersey in 1558 he appointed some of the priests among them as Rectors and ignored his father's wishes, and to an extent those of Queen Elizabeth, over which prayer book should be used in island churches. His appointment to the Town Church of Guillaume Morise, a Huguenot minister from Anjou, led to the establishment of what Chroniques de Jersey described as the first "real Reformed Church in Jersey".

There was a second influx of Hugusenots in 1568 and they, too, were welcomed by Amias, although his father had reservations and wrote:
"I approve my son's zeal in receiving these strangers, but I cannot like their continued abode in the isle. They should be passed on." But father and son got on well, despite these occasional disagreements, and in 1571 Amias was made joint-Governor, becoming sole Governor on his father's death, probably in 1578, although there are no records of the transition.

His duties increasingly meant that Amias was absent from the island for long periods. He was appointed resident Ambassador in France for three years in 1576 and appointed Guillaume Lempriere, Seigneur of Trinity, his Lieut-Governor. He was clearly well trusted, because Queen Elizabeth's principal secretary Sir Francis Walsingham wrote:
" Her Majesty wishes you in matters that concern her service to deal as you think fit, though you have no special direction, such trust she reposes in you."
He was present in Jersey in 1583 for the swearing-in of his son Anthony as Lieut-Governor and his brother George as Bailiff, before leaving to join the Privy Council, and then take up his role as jailer of Mary Queen of Scots. He was present at her eventual execution. Through his son Anthony, he became an ancestor to Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...

.

Family

He married Margaret Harvey, and their son Anthony
Anthony Paulet
Anthony Paulet was Governor of the Isle of Jersey from 1588 until his death in 1600.Born at Hinton St George, Somerset to Sir Amyas Paulet and his wife Margaret Hervey, Anthony accompanied his father to Paris where Amyas was Ambassador.In 1579, Amyas took into his household a tutor, Jean Hotman ,...

, succeeded his father as Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

. By his wife, he had three sons and three daughters:
  • Hugh (b. 1558), the eldest son, died before his father.
  • Anthony
    Anthony Paulet
    Anthony Paulet was Governor of the Isle of Jersey from 1588 until his death in 1600.Born at Hinton St George, Somerset to Sir Amyas Paulet and his wife Margaret Hervey, Anthony accompanied his father to Paris where Amyas was Ambassador.In 1579, Amyas took into his household a tutor, Jean Hotman ,...

     (b. 1562), was his father's heir
  • George (b. 1565) by marriage with a distant cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Paulet, became the owner of Goathurst
    Goathurst
    Goathurst is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset, around 3 miles from the town of Bridgwater. The parish includes the hamlets of Andersfield and Huntstile.-History:Goathurst was part of the hundred of Andersfield....

    , in Somerset
    Somerset
    The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

  • Joan married Robert Heyden of Bowood, Devonshire
  • Sarah married Sir Francis Vincent of Stoke D'Abernon
    Stoke d'Abernon
    Stoke d'Abernon is a small village situated between Cobham and Leatherhead in the county of Surrey. The census area Oxshott and Stoke d'Abernon has a population of 6,100.-History:...

    , Surrey
  • Elizabeth died unmarried.

Sources

  • Jersey Through the Centuries: A Chronology, Leslie Sinel, Jersey, 1984
  • Mary, Queen of Scots, Antonia Fraser, 1971, Dell Publishing Company, Inc., New York

External links

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