Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paul, John (1707-1787)
PAUL, JOHN (1707–1787), legal author, son of Josiah Paul of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, by Hester, daughter of Giles Pike of the same place, was born at Highgrove, Tetbury, in 1707. He married Sarah Wight, of Wotton-under-Edge, succeeded to the estate of Highgrove on the death of his father (2 Oct. 1744), and died without issue on 2 Sept. 1787.
Paul was author of the following legal manuals of a popular type, published at London: 1. ‘Every Landlord or Tenant his own Lawyer; or the whole Law respecting Landlords, Tenants, and Lodgers,’ 1775; 2nd edit., revised by G. Wilson, 1776; 7th edit. 1791, 8vo; 9th edit., revised by J. I. Maxwell, 1806, 8vo. 2. ‘The Parish Officer's Compleat Guide; containing the duty of the Churchwarden, Overseer, Constable, and Surveyor of the Highways,’ 1776; 6th edit., 1793, 8vo. 3. ‘A System of the Laws of Bankruptcy,’ 1776, 8vo. 4. ‘The Law of Tythes,’ 1781, 8vo; 2nd edit., revised by J. I. Maxwell, 1807, 8vo. 5. ‘The Compleat Constable,’ 1785, 8vo.
[Lee's Tetbury, 1857, p. 221; European Mag. 1787, p. 247; Marvin's Legal Bibliography; Brit. Mus. Cat.]