Earl Poulett

The first Baron's son, John Poulett (1615–1665) was a Member of Parliament for Stamford and fought as a Royalist Officer in the Civil War.

He died unmarried and was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Earl, who had previously sat as a Member of Parliament for Bridgwater and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Devon.

The sixth earl was heavily involved in steeplechasing as a racehorse owner whose cerise and blue colours were most famed for being carried to victory twice in the Grand National, in 1868 and 1871, by a horse called The Lamb.

A son, William Turnour Thomas Poulett, had been born to the 6th Earl's first wife, Elizabeth Lavinia, in 1849, while they were married, but although his wife insisted he was the child's father, Captain Poulett (as he then was) had reason to believe the child had been fathered by another man, Captain William Turnour Granville, after whom his mother named him.

Thus in 1875, W. T. T. Poulett was living at the family's secondary estate, Grenville Hall, Droxford, under the courtesy title of Viscount Hinton.

[6] The House of Lords rejected the doctrine of pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant – a child born within wedlock is lawfully fathered by its mother's husband.

In a fortunate turn of events, in 1901 Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland, the widow of a distant kinsman of the 6th Earl's, left W. H. G. Poulett a bequest of £5,000 in her Will, and he became a tea-planter in Ceylon.

[8] The arms of the head of the Poulett family are blazoned Sable, three swords pilewise points in base proper pomels and hilts or.