Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 15 - Paget
Paget.
Valerian Paget, a French Protestant refugee, settled in Leicestershire in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Leonard Paget, his son, founded a family represented in last century by Thomas Paget, Esq. of Humberstone, near Leicester, a landowner. He was famous as a breeder of cattle, and later in life joined with a partner in founding the Leicester Bank, which still exists under the firm of Thomas Paget and Thomas Tertius Paget, having its head office in the county town, and branch offices at Melton-Mowbray and Loughborough. Thomas Paget, its founder, had a son, Thomas, born in 1779, who was elected one of the M.P.’s for Leicestershire in 1831, and retired in 1832. Having taken an intense interest in the Reform Act, he was equally gratified by the passing of the new Municipal Corporations Act, under which he was the first Mayor of Leicester in 1836. He died at Humberstone on 25th November 1862, aged eighty-three. Among other descendants of the old refugee I observe the names of Edmund Arthur Paget, Esq. of Thorpe, near Melton, and Charles Paget, Esq. of Ruddington, late M.P. for Nottingham.