PALEY, FREDERICK APTHORP (1815–1888), classical scholar, was the eldest son of Edmund Paley, rector of Easingwold, near York, where he was born 14 Jan. 1815. He was grandson of Archdeacon William Paley [q. v.] Educated at Shrewsbury, and at St. John's College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. in 1838, but, owing to his dislike of mathematics, he was unable to take a degree in honours. To classical studies he was devoted from early youth, although his interests were always wide, and as a boy he was a good mechanician and fond of natural science. In 1838 he published his first book, a translation of G. F. Schömann's ‘De Comitiis Atheniensibus.’ He proceeded M.A. in 1842, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. of Aberdeen in 1883.
From 1838 to 1846 he was in residence at Cambridge, and, in addition to reading with pupils, assiduously studied classics and ecclesiastical architecture. He was an original member of the Cambridge Camden Society, became honorary secretary and member of committee, and he contributed largely to the ‘Ecclesiologist’ while that paper was the organ of the society. He eagerly supported the restoration of the Round Church at Cambridge. During the progress of the Oxford movement, by which he was greatly influenced, he identified himself with the high-church party in his university. In 1846 he was suspected of having encouraged one of his pupils named Morris, a former pupil of Henry Alford [q. v.], to join the Roman church (Alford, An Earnest Dissuasive from joining the Church of Rome, London, 1846), and he was ordered by the master and seniors to give up his rooms in college (Cambridge Chronicle, 31 Oct., 11 Nov., 26 Dec. 1846, 26 July 1851).
He accordingly left Cambridge, but not before he had himself become a Roman catholic. He now sought employment as private tutor. From 1847 to 1850 he was tutor to Bertram Talbot, heir to the earldom of Shrewsbury. In 1850 he obtained a similar post in the Throckmorton family, and accompanied them on a visit to Madeira and Teneriffe for the benefit of his pupil's health (cf. Classical Review, iii. 82). From 1852 to 1856 he was non-resident tutor in the family of Kenelm Digby. He married in 1854, and after a brief sojourn at Westgate, Peterborough, where he took private pupils, he returned to the university in 1860, on the partial removal of religious disability, and settled at 63 Jesus Lane, Cambridge. He subsequently lived at 17 Botolph Lane.
Since 1844 an edition of ‘Æschylus,’ with Latin notes by him, had been appearing in parts, and, though coldly received abroad, the work was meeting with success in this country. During his absence from Cambridge of fourteen years (1846–1860) he had studied and written incessantly. Not content with producing several books on classical and architectural subjects, he had carefully studied botany and geology. He investigated the habits of earthworms, and contemplated a work on this subject, but his design was anticipated by the appearance of Darwin's book. In 1878 he published his discoveries, in tabulated form, in two articles, entitled ‘The Habits, Food, and Uses of the Earth-Worm’ (Hardwicke, Science Gossip, 1878, Nos. 162, 163).
From 1860 to 1874 he was an assiduous private tutor at Cambridge. His pupils found in him a stimulating guide, who never consented to teach solely for the examinations. He examined in the classical tripos in 1873–4. In 1874 he was selected by Manning to be professor of classical literature at the new catholic university college at Kensington, and removed to Lowther Lodge, Lonsdale Road, Barnes. The college proved a failure, and Paley ceased to be professor in 1877. He was classical examiner to the university of London (1875–1880), and to the civil service commission.
In 1881, owing to weakness of the chest and lungs, he removed to Bournemouth. He bought a house in Boscombe Spa, which he renamed ‘Apthorp.’ There he died 9 Dec. 1888. He was buried in the Roman catholic churchyard, Boscombe. He was twice married: first, 31 July 1854, at Brighton, to Ruth, sixth daughter of G. M. Burchell, esq., of Scotsland, Bramley, Surrey (Times, 2 Aug. 1854); she was killed in a carriage accident near Peterborough 26 May 1870, and was buried in Peterborough cemetery; he married, secondly, on 3 Oct. 1871, at Clifton, Selena Frances, youngest daughter of the late Rev. T. Broadhurst of Bath (Times, 6 Oct. 1871). He left two sons and one daughter by his first wife; his second wife survived him.
Much of his published work is good, notably his introductions to the plays of Euripides, which are models of clearness, and his ‘Manual of Gothic Mouldings,’ which is admirably compiled. He was never at leisure, but he lacked patience for research. For years Donaldson's ‘New Cratylus’ and ‘Varronianus’ formed his ultimate court of appeal in classics. He possessed scarcely any works by foreign scholars, and he never read German. With authors like the Latin poets, full of recondite learning, he was not competent to deal. His Greek and Latin
