ABSTRACT
When William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester and Lord Treasurer of England, died in March 1572 there was an entrenched belief among those who knew him that he was over 106 years old. Within a few months of his death, Rowland Broughton, a one time gentleman servant and distant relation by marriage, published a verse panygeric entitled: A briefe discourse of the lyfe and death of the late right high and honourable Sir William Paulet, knight … Marquess of Winchester… which contained the lines: Aboute the time, from Christes birth One thousand iiii hundred sixtie & five; The fifte of EDWARD eke the fourth, That tyme in England kyng alive. At fisherton, hight Delamer, This Subject true was borne, Of worthy Parentes, as the stocke, Had long tyme ben beforne. …. AN. A thousande iiii hundereth, sixtie five, He was borne on Whitson night, And lyved a C sixe, three quarter and od, By Computacion right. 1
