On the triumph of the parliament's cause he lost his prebend of Chichester as a delinquent (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 12), but he was 'discharged by the committee for sequestrations' (Cal. of Comm. for Compounding, v. 27 a; see also vol. G. ccxvii. 54). According to Lloyd, he was a shrewd man of business, and lent money to advantage, 'to the most considerable' among the independents (cf. Cal. of Clarendon Papers, ii. 171). At the Restoration he again became royal chaplain, and recovered his Seaford prebend and his Oxford livings. He became vicar of Amport, Hampshire, in 1662. He was presented to the deanery of Lichfield 26 Jan. 1660-1, and took part in the election of Hacket as bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (State Papers, Dom. Car. II, Case A.8). On 16 June 1663 a congé d'élire was despatched for his election to the bishopric of Oxford. He was confirmed 13 Dec., consecrated at Lambeth on the 20th, and enthroned 7 Jan. 1663-4. Three days previous to his election a warrant of commendam was issued, granting him liberty to hold the rectories of Baldwin-Brightwell and Chinnor (Entry Book, 12, p. 41, 11 Nov. 1663). Sheldon and the king expected that Paul would devote his wealth to rebuilding the bishop's palace at Cuddesden, and he 'bought and laid in at Cuddesden a considerable quantity of timber ; but before anything could be done he died' at Chinnor (24 Aug. 1665). He was buried at Baldwin-Bright well, where a monument, with a long inscription, was erected (Lansd. MS. 986, f. 44). His will, dated 14 Nov. 1664, was proved 21 Feb. 1665-6.
Paul married, in 1632, by license of the dean of Westminster, Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Glenham, knt., and sister of the Viscountess of Dorchester. The marriage led to a suit between Paul and the viscountess, 'as to her promise in consideration of the marriage to pay 600l. to be deposited in the hands of trustees for him and her.' The difference was referred to the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord keeper, and they found the viscountess willing 'to pay 250l.' (28 Feb. 1633-4; Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. ii. 46). Paul's first wife died in 1633, and was buried at Baldwin-Brightwell. On 22 Jan. 1634-5 he married, at St. Giles-in- the-fields, Alice, second daughter of Thomas Cutler of Ipswich. She died soon after, 19 Nov. 1635, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 20 Nov. Almost immediately after Paul married a third wife, Rachel, daughter of Sir Christopher Clitherow, knt., by whom he had a numerous family. Her portrait was engraved by D. Loggan. Paul's eldest son, William, of Bray in Berkshire, was knighted at Windsor 6 July 1671 (Le Neve, Knights, Harl. Soc., viii. 249). The male line died out in the second generation. The female is now represented by the Baroness Le Despenser, whose ancestor, Sir William Stapleton, bart., married the heiress of Paul's only surviving grandson (Chester, Westminster Abbey Reg.)
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. and Fasti; Le Neve's Fasti; Lloyd's Memoires, p. 611; Foster's Alumni; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 12; Foster's London Marriage Licenses ; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg. p. 131; Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports and State Papers, Dom.ubi supra; Lansd. MS. 986, f. 44; Lords' and Commons' Journals; Harl. Soc. Publ. xiii. 249; Simms's Bibliotheca Staffordiensis; information from the Rev. Hilgrove Coxe, rector of Brightwell.]
PAUL, WILLIAM (1678–1716), Jacobite, born in 1678, was the eldest son of John Paul, who possessed the small estate of Little Ashby, near Lutterworth, Leicestershire, his mother being a daughter of Mr. Barfoot of Streatfields, Warwickshire. He received his early education at a school kept by Thomas Sargreave, rector of Leire, Leicestershire, and at Rugby, which he entered in 1696 (Register of Rugby School). In 1698 he went to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1701, and M.A. in 1705. Shortly after leaving the university he became curate at Carlton Curlieu, near Harborough, Leicestershire, acting at the same time as chaplain to Sir Geoffrey Palmer [q. v.] He went thence to Tamworth, Staffordshire, where he was also usher in the free school; and subsequently became curate at Nuneaton, Warwickshire. From Nuneaton he was promoted to the vicarage of Orton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, being instituted on 5 May 1709, after taking the oaths to Queen Anne and abjuring the Pretender. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1715 he set out with others to join the Jacobite forces in Lancashire. On the way north he was seized by Major Bradshaw, but was again set at liberty by Colonel Noel, a justice of the peace. He succeeded in joining the rebels at Lancaster, and at Preston induced Robert Patten [q. v.] to permit him to read the prayers. This permission, Patten affirms, he granted him unwillingly, because he was in lay dress; and he read prayers three times for the Pretender as king. He left Preston just before it was invested, and, although taken by General Wills, was discharged. After the rout of the rebels he went south to his own county, and thence to London, where he appeared in coloured clothes, laced hat, full-bottomed wig,
