Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/235

 in 1814. In 1815 a new edition, both in 8vo and 12mo, was enlarged by Thomas Hartwell Horne [q. v.] 2. ‘The British Farmers' Cyclopædia, or Complete Agricultural Dictionary, including every Science or Subject dependent on or connected with improved modern Husbandry,’ 1806, 4to, with forty-two engravings, dedicated to the Duke of Bedford. Donaldson says it was an advance on preceding works, and that the author had ‘added a large mite to the progress of the art’ of agriculture. 3. ‘A Gazetteer of England and Wales, containing the Statistics, Agriculture, and Mineralogy of the Counties, the History, Antiquities, Curiosities, Trade, &c. of the Cities, Towns, and Boroughs, with Maps,’ 1810, 8vo. An historical introduction of twenty pages contains, among other statistics, a table of mitred abbeys, their valuation and founders.

[Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Gent. Mag. 1842, ii. 672; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. i. 891; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, p. 92.]  POULETT. [See also .]

POULETT, JOHN, first (1586–1649), cavalier, eldest son of Sir Anthony Paulet or Poulett, governor of Jersey from 1588 to 1600 [see under ], was born in 1586. He matriculated (from University College) at Oxford on 21 June 1601, but did not graduate, and on 27 Nov. 1608 received a colonelcy of cavalry from Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford. In 1610 he was admitted a student at the Middle Temple, and in the same year (22 Oct.) was returned to parliament for Somerset, which seat he retained in the Short parliament of 1614. In the parliament of 1621–2 he sat for Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Being of puritan ancestry, and patron of the living of Hinton St. George, Somerset, held by the puritan Edmond Peacham [q. v.], Poulett incurred some suspicion of complicity in Peacham's alleged treasons, and was twice examined by the council in November 1614 and again in March 1615, without, however, any charge being formulated against him.

At the instance of Charles I, who had recently visited him at Hinton St. George, Poulett early in October 1625 received into his house the Huguenot admiral the Duke of Soubise, the latter having put into Plymouth Sound after his defeat by the Duke of Montmorency. Soubise remained at Hinton St. George nearly a year, during which time Poulett discharged his duties as host so much to the king's satisfaction that, by letters patent of 23 June 1627, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Poulett of Hinton St. George. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 20 March 1627–8.

Poulett was appointed on 30 May 1635 to the command of the Constant Reformation; this ship formed part of the Channel fleet commanded by the lord high admiral, the Earl of Lindsey [cf. ], by whom, on 23 Sept. following, he was knighted on board the Mary Honour. Poulett was summoned to the great council which met at York on 24 Sept. 1640, and was one of the royal commissioners for the negotiations with the Scots at Ripon in the following month. He was at this time regarded as a ‘popular’ man; but in 1642, on the passing of the militia ordinance, he withdrew from parliament, and, after signing the York manifesto of 15 June, united with the Marquis of Hertford at Wells in putting the commission of array into execution, and forcibly resisting the execution of the militia ordinance. Parliament voted him a delinquent, issued a warrant for his apprehension, and on 17 March impeached him of high treason. In the meantime he had retreated with Hertford to Sherborne Castle, and, after its evacuation, recruited with him in Wales, and was taken prisoner on 4 Oct. by Essex in a skirmish near Bridgnorth.

Having regained his liberty, Poulett served for some time under Hopton, for whom, during the autumn of 1643, he raised in the neighbourhood of Oxford (his name appears among the signatures to the expostulatory letter to the Scottish privy council issued thence on the eve of the Scottish invasion) a brigade of 2,500 men, which he led into Dorset in the winter. He took and burned on 18 Jan. 1643–4 Lady Drake's house at Ashe, defeated a detachment of Waller's army at Hemyock Castle, occupied Wellington in March, and thence advanced upon Lyme Regis, which, on the arrival of Prince Maurice with reinforcements on 20 April, was closely invested. Though the siege was pressed with great vigour, the town succeeded in holding out until relieved by Essex on 15 June. Poulett then retreated to Exeter, not without considerable loss by the way in skirmishes with Waller's forces. A quarrel with Prince Maurice, who appears to have caned him and refused satisfaction, led to their separation. Poulett was appointed commissioner of Exeter, where he was taken prisoner on the surrender of the city on 13 April 1646. He was brought to London in extreme ill-health, and, by the intercession of Sir Thomas Fairfax, was permitted to reside in his own house at Chiswick, and was