below), and the outcome was that the earldom and other titles were awarded to the 6th Earl's son by his third wife, who became the seventh Earl Poulett. He fought in the First World War as a Captain in the Royal Horse Artillery and died of influenza in 1918. He was succeeded by his only son, the eighth Earl, who was brought up by his mother, a former actress, and after Eton trained as a railway engineer. Although three times married, he was childless, and on his death in 1973 all his titles became extinct. Since both the 8th Earl and his sister Lady Bridget Poulett were childless, in 1968 the 8th and last Earl Poulett sold the Hinton estate, after which he and his wife settled in Jersey, Channel Islands. Perhaps he recalled that three of his Poulett ancestors had been Governor of Jersey in the 16th century. Lady Bridget Poulett (1912–1975), the only sibling of the 8th and last Earl, was a 'Society Beauty' of the 1930s. Disputed descent of earldom On the sixth Earl's death in 1899, a dispute arose over the succession to his titles. 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. Until a son was born in 1883, he had no son he believed to be his own, yet treated W. T. T. Poulett as his son. 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. However, after the birth of William John Lydston Poulett he was disowned. Following the 6th Earl's death, the Poulett earldom and its entailed estates were claimed by W. T. T. Poulett, but this was challenged on the grounds of paternity, and on 27 July 1903, on a report from its Committee of Privileges steered by the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, the House determined the dispute in favour of the 6th Earl's fifteen-year-old son, William John Lydston Poulett. The House of Lords rejected the doctrine of pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant – a child born within wedlock is