Good Afternoon To You, My Gentle Friends,

By Tudor times, The Honourable Wiliam Paget was one of the most prominent men of hte Kingdom.

He was born in 1506, in London, England, as the son of Wiliam Paget. The senior William Paget was said to have been of humble origin from Wednesbury, Staffordshire. He had his son, William, educated at St. Paul's School, and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and afterwards, William was sent to the University of Paris.

Probably through the influence of Stephen Gardiner, who had early befriended William Paget, he was employed by King Henry VIII in several important diplomatic missions; in 1532, William Paget was appointed as clerk of the signet, and soon afterwards of the privy council. He acquired large estates from King Henry VIII on the dissolution of the monasteries. He became Secretary to Queen Anne of Cleves in 1539, and in 1543, he was sworn of the privy council.

William Paget was Secretary of State with Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, in 1543, 1544, and again with Sir William Petre from 1544 to 1547. King Henry VIII in his later years relied much on William Paget's advice, naming him as one the Executors of His Will, and appointed him as one of the council to act during the minority of Prince Edward VI.

Influential in Edward Seymour's plot to become Protector of Prince Edwsard VI, William Paget at first vigorously supported the Protector Somerset, while counselling a moderation which Somerset did not always observe. In 1547, Paget was made comptroller of the King's household, Chacellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a Knight of the Garterp and in 1549, Paget was summoned by writ to the House of Lords as Baron Paget de Beaudesert. About the same time he obtained extensive grants of lands, including Cannock Chase and Burton Abbey in Staffordshire, and in London the residence of the bishops of Exeter, afterwards known successively as Lincoln House and Essex House, on the site now occupied by the Outer Temple in the Strand. He also obtained Beaudesert in Warwickshire, which remained the chief seat of the Paget family. Paget shared Somerset's disgrace, being committed to the Towerin 1551, and degraded from the Order of hte Garter in 1552, besides suffering a heavy fine by the Star Chamber for having profited at the expense of the Crown in his administration of the ducy of Lancaster. He was, however, restored to the King's favour in 1553, and was one of the twenty-six peers who signed the device of King Edward; Paget was one of Jane Grey's Privy Council lors, but signed a Proclamation in support of Mary shortly after. Paget made his peace with Queen Mary, who reinstated him as a Knight of hte Garter and in the Privy Council in 1553, and appointed thim Lord Privy Seal in 1556. William Paget openly suggested to Marry Edward Courtenay to Elizabeth; but Courtenay had rejected the idea, on the grounds that it would be beneath the dignity of one of his unblemished lineage. On the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, William Paget retired from public life.

William Paget married Anne Preston about 1530, in Westmoreland, England. Anne Preston was born about 1510, in Preston Patick, Lancashinre, England, as a daughter of Henry Preston, and she died in February of 1586 or 1587, in West Drayton, Middlesex, England.The couple had six daughters and five sons, the two eldest sons, Henry and Thomas, succeeded in turn to the peerage. The Pagets' marriage was close, and Wiloiam's fellow-councillors had on occasion appealed to Anne's influence with Wiliam, just as Anne had appealed to them on William's behalf in 1552. Lady Paget was not an especial favourite of Queen Mary's, though Lady Paget was chosen to escort Queen Mary in th Coronation procession.

The Paget family's main residence was Beaudesert House in Cannock Chase. But before this was built, the Pagets often occupied the Manor House within the precincts of the former Burton Abbey.

When they stayed there, the Pagets lived in grand style. An inventory of about 1580 shows that there were over sixty rooms, many handsomely furnished. On occasion, the household staff numbered seventy-five persons, and in the first week of January, 1580, there were fourteen guests who stayed in the house, including th Sheriff of Staffordshire.

When Burton Abbey was granted to its new owner in 1546, William Paget began poanning to expand the Manor House -- known to have existed since at least 1514 -- into a grand mansion. A plan of 1562 shows that the house was to have thre storeys and a long galoery. To provide the materials for this project, the old Abbey buildings were to be cannibalised.

It is not known how much of this ambitios plan was actually carried into effect.

William Paget died on June 09, 1563, in West Drayton, Middlesex, England. William's death in 1563, and that of his eldest son, Henry, in 1568, delayed any further building. Thomas Paget, the Third Baron Paget, and Williams's second son, concentrated on building Beaudesert House before the family estates were confiscated and the title lost in 1583, because of his complicity in the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and place Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. In 1597, William, the Fourth Baron Paget was restored to his estates and to his title in 1603.