to employ all her powers of enchantment on Paulet; he suggested that she might promise, in the event of her regaining her liberty and influence, to obtain for Paulet a great increase in his power over Jersey, if not independent sovereignty. But Paulet declined to neglect his duty through ‘hope of gain, fear of loss, or any private respect whatever.’ With the aid of Walsingham and his spies he kept himself accurately informed as to his prisoner's and her agents' plots and machinations, and he aided in arrangements by which the government was able to inspect, without her knowledge, all her private correspondence [see Gifford, Gilbert]. In August he arranged to send her papers to London, and, so as not to excite her suspicions, he removed her for a fortnight to Sir Walter Aston's house at Tixall, on pretence of enabling her to take part in a stag hunt. In her absence from Chartley her coffers were searched, and their contents, including not only letters but many of her jewels, were seized. Early in September, in accordance with orders from London, Paulet took, moreover, possession of his prisoner's money, and on the 25th of that month he removed her to Fotheringay to stand her trial. He acted as a commissioner. After her condemnation in October he treated her with far less ceremony than before, and urged, in letters to Walsingham and Burghley, with a pertinacity that became at times almost grotesque, the need of executing her without delay. In November Sir Drue Drury was associated with him in the office of keeper. On 1 Feb. Secretary Davison sent by letter to Paulet plain hints that he might safely murder Mary privately, and thus relieve Queen Elizabeth of the distasteful task of signing her death-warrant. Paulet at once replied that he could not perform ‘an act which God and the law forbiddeth.’
Mary's execution at Fotheringay on 8 Feb. 1586–7 brought Paulet's duties to an end. Elizabeth, who had frequently corresponded with him on familiar terms while he was in charge of Mary, expressed full satisfaction with his performance of his difficult task. On the St. George's eve following (22 April) he was appointed chancellor of the order of the Garter, and held the office for a year. On 14 Jan. 1587–8 he was lodging in Fleet Street, and was corresponding with the lord-admiral Nottingham respecting the ‘right of tenths in Jersey [of which he was still governor] belonging to the government.’ In February and March he was one of four commissioners sent to the Low Countries to discuss Elizabeth's relations with the States-General. On 24 April following he was living at Twickenham. On 4 Jan. 1587–8 he attended the privy council, and signed orders directing catholic recusants to be dealt with stringently. He died in London on 26 Sept. 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.
A manuscript volume containing Sir Amias's letters while he was ambassador in France is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was edited in 1866 for the Roxburghe Club by Octavius Ogle. The earliest letter is dated from Tours, 26 May 1577, the last from Paris, 10 Jan. 1577–8. A second volume of Paulet's letters from France, dating between 12 Jan. 1577–8 and 29 Aug. 1578, was recently purchased for the same library, together with portions of a third letter-book containing copies of letters written by Paulet when he was keeper of Mary Stuart. The last series of letters was printed by Father John Morris in the ‘Letter-Book of Sir Amias Poulet,’ 1874. A further collection of letters—more than one hundred in number, but not supplying the whole of the correspondence—addressed by Paulet to Sir Francis Walsingham during his attendance on the Scottish queen, are at the Public Record Office, and have been calendared in Thorpe's ‘Scottish State Papers.’
By his wife Margaret (b. 1536), daughter and heir of Anthony Hervey (d. 1564), a catholic gentleman, of Columb John's in Devonshire (Morris, p. 20), Paulet had three sons and three daughters. Hugh (b. 1558), the eldest son, died young, but left behind him a memorial of his study of French in a French romance, entitled ‘L'histoire de la duchesse de Savoye traduitte d'anglois en françoys’ (Harl. MS. 1215). The second son, Sir Anthony (1562–1600), was his father's heir, and, having acted as his father's lieutenant in the government of Jersey, became full governor on Sir Amias's death. His rule was extremely severe, and his uncle, George Paulet, the bailiff of Jersey, encouraged him in his autocratic policy. He was guardian of Philip de Carteret [q. v.], seigneur of St. Ouen, who was a minor, and did what he could to depress the fortunes of the Carteret family. In 1589 he imprisoned the three jurats of Jersey for disputing his authority. In 1590 commissioners were sent from London to inquire into the grievances of the islanders against Sir Anthony and his uncle George. Both officers were fully exonerated from blame. Sir Anthony, who was also captain of the guard to Queen Elizabeth, died on 22 July 1600, and was buried in the
