Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Paul, William
PAUL, WILLIAM (1822–1905), horticulturist, born at Churchgate, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, on 16 June 1822, was second son of Adam Paul, a nurseryman of Huguenot descent, who came to London from Aberdeenshire towards the close of the eighteenth century and purchased the Cheshunt nursery in 1806. After education at a private school at Waltham Cross, William joined his father's business. On Adam Paul's death in 1847 the business was carried on as A. Paul & Son by William and his elder brother George. In 1860 this partnership was dissolved. William Paul & Son carried on the Waltham Cross nursery, which he had founded a year before, while George established the firm of Paul & Son at Cheshunt.
John Claudius Loudon [q. v.] before his death in 1843 discovered Paul's literary abilities, and for him Paul did early literary work. He afterwards helped John Lindley [q. v.], for whom, in 1843, he wrote the articles in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' on 'Roses in Pots,' which were issued separately in the same year, and reached a ninth edition in 1908. Paul's book, 'The Rose Garden,' which was first published in 1848, and reached its tenth edition in 1903, has enjoyed the unique fortune of maintaining a pre-eminent authority for sixty years. It is a practical treatise, to which Paul's wide reading gave a literary character. Coloured illustrations long rendered the book expensive; later editions were issued in two forms, with and without these plates.
Paul served on the committee of the National Floricultural Society from 1851 until it was dissolved in 1858, when the floral committee of the Royal Horticultural Society was established. In July 1858 he joined the National Rose Society, which Samuel Reynolds Hole [q. v. Suppl. II] had just founded, and in 1866 he was one of the executive committee of twenty-one members for the great International Horticultural Exhibition. He also acted as a commissioner for the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Paul was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1875, and received the Victoria medal of horticulture when it was first instituted in 1897.
Although best known as a rosarian, Paul from the outset of his career devoted attention to the improvement of other races of plants, such as hollyhocks, asters, hyacinths, phloxes, camellias, zonal pelargoniums, hollies, ivies, shrubs, fruit-trees, and Brussels sprouts. He dealt with these subjects in 'American Plants, their History and Culture' (1858), the 'Lecture on the Hyacinth' (1864), and papers on 'An Hour with the Hollyhock' (1851) and on 'Tree Scenery' (1870-2). He contributed papers on the varieties of yew and holly to the 'Proceedings' of the Royal Horticultural Society (1861, 1863). In addition to 'The Rose Annual,' which he issued from 1858 to 1881, Paul was associated with his friends Dr. Robert Hogg and Thomas Moore in the editorship of 'The Florist and Pomologist' from 1868 to 1874. The practical knowledge with which he wrote of varied types of plant life impressed Charles Darwin (cf. Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii.). Clear and fluent as a speaker, he proved an acceptable lecturer. One of his best lectures, 'Improvements in Plants,' at Manchester in 1869, was included in his 'Contributions to Horticultural Literature, 1843-1892' (1892).
Paul died of a paralytic seizure on 31 March 1905, and was buried in the family vault at Cheshunt cemetery. His wife, Amelia Jane Harding, predeceased him. His business was carried on by his son, Arthur William Paul. The rich library of old gardening books and general literature, which he collected at his residence, Waltham House, was sold at Sotheby's after his death, but many volumes were bought by his son.
Besides the works mentioned, Paul was author of: 1. 'Villa Gardening,' 1865; 3rd revised edit. 1876. 2. A shilling brochure, 'Roses and Rose-Culture,' 1874; 11th edit. 1910. 3. 'The Future of Epping Forest,' 1880.
[Garden, lvii. (1900), 166; lxiii. (1903), preface with portrait; and lxvii. (1905), 213; Journal of Horticulture, l. (1905), 305 (with portrait); Gardeners' Chron. 1905, i. 216, 231; Proc. Linnean Soc. 1904-5, 46-7.]