Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/69

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nected with the Prayer Book of 1549, pp. 54, &c., all in the Camden Soc.; Tytler's Edw. VI, i. 241; Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 99; Burke's Peerage, p. 37; Gentleman's Mag. 1818, i. 119; Froude's Hist. of Engl. v. 2, &c., vi. 30, vii. 18, &c.]

W. A. J. A.

PAGET, WILLIAM, fourth Lord Paget (1572–1629), born in 1572, was son of Thomas, third baron Paget [q. v.], by Nazaret, daughter of Sir John Newton of Barr's Court, Somerset, and widow of Sir Thomas Southwell of Norfolk. He was a staunch protestant. In 1587 he matriculated at Oxford as a member of Christ Church, and graduated B.A. on 25 Feb. 1589–90 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 1107). He was with Essex at the taking of Cadiz in 1596, being then a knight, and on 22 July 1597 a portion of the lands forfeited by his father's attainder in 1586 was granted to him in fee farm (Lysons, Middlesex Parishes, p. 34; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1595–7, p. 468). In 1598 he was in attendance on Sir Robert Cecil when ambassador at Paris, and afterwards travelled into Italy (ib. 1598–1601, p. 43). James I restored him to his lands and honours (ib. 1603–10, p. 32), and from 1605 to 1628 he was summoned to parliament as Baron Paget. In May 1628, during the debate in the lords on Weston's clause in the petition of right which had been rejected by the commons, Buckingham proposed by way of concession to change the words ‘sovereign power’ into ‘prerogative,’ an amendment which puzzled the house. Paget, in a speech of some length, suggested that the judges should be asked their opinion (Gardiner, Hist. of England, vi. 281). He died at his house in Westminster on 29 Aug. 1629, and was buried in the church of West Drayton, Middlesex (will registered in P.C.C. 110, Barrington). A curious account of the dissection of his body is in Rawlinson MS. C. 402, art. 12 (Cat. Codd. MSS. Bibl. Bodl., Rawl. MS., pars V. fasc. ii. p. 853). In 1602 he married Lettice, daughter and coheiress of Henry Knollys of Kingsbury, Warwickshire (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1601–3, p. 248), by whom he had three sons: William, fifth baron Paget, who is separately noticed, and Henry and Thomas, who both died unmarried. Of four daughters, Anne, the youngest, married, first, Sir Simon Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire; and, secondly, Sir William Waller, general of the parliament's forces. In 1643 Lady Paget was assessed at 500l., but, as she had previously lent the parliament 200l., she was discharged of her assessment on 25 July (Cal. of Committee for Advance of Money, p. 193; Commons' Journals, iii. 181).

[Collins's Peerage, ed. 1812, v. 187; Nichols's Progresses of James I.]

G. G.

PAGET, Sir WILLIAM, fifth Lord Paget (1609–1678), born in 1609, was eldest son of William, fourth baron Paget [q. v.] He was made K.B. at the coronation of Charles I on 2 Feb. 1625 (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 186), and on 18 Dec. 1627 matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, but did not graduate (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 107). In 1639 he was summoned to parliament. On the question of precedency of supply being moved in the House of Lords, 24 April 1640, he voted against the king (Lords' Journals, iv. 67), and on 18 Aug. following he was among the peers who petitioned the king, then at York, to summon a parliament for the redress of grievances (Nalson, Collection, i. 437). On 9 Feb. 1642 his father-in-law, Lord Holland, appointed him keeper of New Lodge Walk in Windsor Forest (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 279). The same year he was constituted by the parliament lord lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 56), and on 23 May addressed a letter to Lord Holland from Beaconsfield, ‘shewing the great readinesse of that county to obey the ordinance of the parliament touching the militia.’ When, however he found that the parliament actually meant to have recourse to arms, he joined the king at York, and stated his reasons in a letter read to the House of Commons on 20 June. He was accordingly discharged from his lieutenancy on 24 June (Commons' Journals, ii. 633, 638). Paget's two letters were printed in broadsheet form. On 22 June he undertook to maintain thirty horse for the king (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, pp. 340–4), but he eventually raised a regiment, which did good service at the battle of Edgehill on 23 Oct. (Saunderson, Life of Charles I, p. 584). He was one of the lords who at Oxford, on 27 Jan. 1643–4, signed a declaration, by the king's command, of the most probable means to settle the peace of the kingdom (Rushworth, Hist. Coll. pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 566). He had his estate sequestered, and was obliged to compound for it by purchasing fee-farm rents of 750l. upon it (cf. his petition in Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 334). In 1644 he was assessed at 2,000l., but the assessment was respited until further order (Cal. of Comm. for Advance of Money, p. 476). On 28 Nov. 1644 the House of Commons accepted 500l. in discharge of part of his fine, and ordered the sequestration to be taken off upon payment of 500l. more (Commons' Journals, iii. 707). At the Restoration Paget and his wife unsuccessfully petitioned the king for grants and