Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paget, John (d.1640)
PAGET, JOHN (d. 1640), nonconformist divine, is believed to have been descended from the Pagets of Rothley, Leicestershire. This is the more likely inasmuch as Robert Paget, minister at Dort, 1638-85, who edited one of John Paget's works, and was evidently a kinsman, described himself as a Leicestershire man (Album Studiosorum Lvgd. Acad.) He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, proceeding B.A. in 1594, and M.A. in 1598. In the latter year, after having held some other benefices, he was appointed rector of Nantwich. Ejected for nonconformity, he went in 1604 to Holland. There for two years he was chaplain to an English regiment, but in 1607 the presbytery of Amsterdam appointed him minister of the newly founded English presbyterian church in that town, at a stipend of 150 florins. He remained in that post till 1637, when he resigned on account of age. He enjoyed the friendship of James I's daughter Elizabeth (1596-1662) [q. v.] He engaged in controversies on infant baptism and church government with Henry Ainsworth, John Davenport, and William Best. Davenport denounced him as an 'unjust doer,' tyrannical in government and corrupt in doctrine ; but he was held in honour by the Amsterdam authorities, and found amusement in the dissensions of his adversaries. He died, probably in the vicinity of Amsterdam, three years after his resignation.
His works comprise: 1. 'A Primary of the Christian Religion' (rare), London, 1601. 2. 'An Arrow against the Separation of the Brownists,' Amsterdam, 1618. 3. 'Meditations of Death' (dedicated by his widow to the princess palatine), Dort, 1639. 4. 'A Defence of Church Government,' 1641. 5. 'A Censure upon a Dialogue of the Anabaptists,' 1642.
Thomas Paget (d. 1660), his brother, sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1605, B.A. 1608, and M.A. 1612, succeeded him at Amsterdam, but returned to England about 1639. He was incumbent of Blackley, near Manchester, till 1646, rector of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, till 1656, and rector of Stockport till his death in 1660. He was father of Nathan Paget [q. v.]
[Register of Cambridge University; preface to Meditations of Death; Wagenaar's Hist, of Amsterdam; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1619 and 1630; Earwaker's East Cheshire, 1878; Steven's Hist. of Scottish Church at Rotterdam, 1832.]