Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paule, George
PAULE, Sir GEORGE (1563?–1637), registrar of the court of high commission and biographer of Whitgift, was, according to his petition to the king in 1631, born about 1563, and perhaps belonged to the family of Paule of Westhartburne or Goosepoole, Durham (Surtees, Durham, iii. 220). By his twenty-first year he was servant to Archbishop Whitgift at Lambeth (Strype, Whitgift, i. 418). On 10 March 1586 he was granted the lease for twenty-one years of the parsonage of Graveney, Kent, bearing a rent of 7l. 6s. 8d., being part of the lands of the see of Canterbury. This unexpired lease was renewed on 26 June 1590 for a like term (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. 1590, p. 158). On 21 Nov. 1588 Anthony Calton, registrar of the bishopric of Ely, assigned his interest in his office to Paule, but Paule disposed of it to Sir John Lambe in 1600 (ib.) In Elizabeth's parliament of 1597 he sat for Downton, Wiltshire (Return of Members, i. 435). By 1599 Paule, although still described as the archbishop's ‘servant,’ had succeeded to the post of comptroller of Whitgift's household (Strype, Whitgift, i. 507). In Elizabeth's last parliament Paule sat as member for Hindon, Wiltshire. On 16 May 1603 he received, along with John Plumer, grant of the office of registrar and clerk of the acts (State Papers, Dom. James I, Proct. book, p. 3). He was with Whitgift during his last illness, and ‘gave this testimony that he died like a lamb’ (Strype, Whitgift, i. 507). On 5 July 1607 he was knighted by James at Whitehall (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 158). In 1612 he published, with a dedication to Archbishop Abbot, his ‘Life of Whitgift;’ and it is clear that he retained the favour of Whitgift's successor. He also attracted the notice of Buckingham, through whom he obtained legal work for the crown. On 30 March 1621 he received a grant, along with Sir Robert Heath, solicitor-general, of the survivorship of the office of chief clerk for enrolling pleas in the king's bench. He held the office, he said later, under or for the Duke of Buckingham (State Papers, Dom. James I, xcvii. 123, xcviii. 15). In July 1621 he quarrelled with the lord treasurer, Lionel Cranfield, earl of Middlesex, and begged leave of Buckingham to prefer his petition against him in parliament, asserting that the latter ‘would be found more corrupt than the late lord chancellor,’ i.e. Bacon (ib. cxxii. 20, 12 July 1621).
In the following year he declared, in a letter to Buckingham from Lambeth, against the levy of a benevolence without parliamentary sanction, and suggested in place of it a tax of 1d. or 2d. in the shilling on necessary commodities (ib. cxxviii., 25 March 1622). In 1623, 1624, and 1628 he was included, as a friend of Buckingham, with others in the commission for the examination of the duke's estates and revenue. Before 1625 Paule received the post of principal registrar to the high commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, and to his majesty's judges delegates (see State Papers under date 16 Jan. and 1 Feb. 1625, clxxxii. 1). He was returned for Bridgnorth for the parliament of 1625. Later in the same year he wrote from Twickenham to inform Secretary Conway in a calm constitutional tone of the opposition in Middlesex and Surrey to the raising of money on privy seals (State Papers, Dom. Car. I, viii. 34, 24 Oct. 1625). He was returned for the succeeding parliament of 1627–8 as member for Bridgnorth, along with Sir Richard Sheldon or Shilton [q. v.], solicitor-general. In 1629 he resigned his post of chief clerk in the king's bench (ib. Dom. dclii. 27). In 1631 he successfully petitioned the king (17 March) for ‘a dispensation to exempt him from shrievalty and other services, in consideration of his infirmities, being sixty-eight years of age’ (ib. Dom. Car. I, clxxxvi. 104, 17 March 1631).
Paule died shortly before 16 April 1635. After much dispute, John Oldbury became registrar to the high commission court, in succession to Paule, on condition of paying to Paule's son George, the king's ward, and to Dame Rachel Paule, the widow, 40l. per annum (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 79 b). Subsequently one Francis Paule obtained the office, and much litigation between him and Dame Rachel followed until 1645.
Paule wrote: ‘The Life of the most reverend and religious Prelate, John Whitgift, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, written by Sir George Paule, Knt., Comptroller of his Grace's Household,’ London, 1612, 4to. Republished 1699, London, ‘to which is added a treatise intituled Conspiracy for pretended Reformation,’ by Richard Cosin [q. v.], 1591. The ‘Life’ only was reprinted in C. Wordsworth's ‘Ecclesiastical Biography,’ 1878, iv. 311–401.
[State Papers, Dom. ubi supra; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 33, 47, 6th Rep. pp. 79, 87; Brydges's Restituta, i. 110, 193; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 46; Strype's Whitgift, ubi supra; Whitgift's Works (Parker Soc.), vols. iii. vi. xi.; Metcalfe's Book of Knights, p. 158; Return of Members of Parliament.]