PAUL, ROBERT BATEMAN (1798-1877) was the son of Richard Paul, rector of Mawgan in Pydar, Cornwall. Educated at Truro Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, he was elected a fellow of Exeter in 1817 and graduated B.A. (1820) and M.A. (1822). He was ordained and appointed curate of Probus, Cornwall. In 1825 he was appointed bursar and tutor at Exeter College. He married (1827) Rosa Mira, daughter of the Rev Richard Twopenny, and was successively curate of Little Wittenham, Berkshire (1825), of Llantwit Major (1829), of St John's, Kentish Town, (1845) and of St Augustine's Bristol (1848).

In 1850 Paul came to Canterbury with the first four ships and acted as commissary for Bishop Selwyn until the first new bishoprics were created (1851-55). He took a leading part in the establishment of Christ's College, of which he was elected a fellow in 1855. He read prayers at the opening of the Canterbury Provincial Council (1853). In that year he was appointed archdeacon of Waimea and went to live in Nelson, residing for some years in Brook Valley without a parish. He was engaged for part of this time tutoring young men who were preparing for the English universities. He published Some Account of the Canterbury Settlement (1854) and Letters from Canterbury (1857). He was chairman of the archdeaconry board which nominated the first bishop of Nelson, and after his installation he returned to England (1860). In 1861 he published New Zealand as It Was and as It is. He became rector of St Mary's, Stamford, in 1864, and a canon of Lincoln in 1867.

In 1872 Paul retired from the ministry and he died on 6 Jun 1877. His other publications included the ethics of Aristotle (1829), Rhetoric (1830), a history of Germany for young people (1847), many editions of Sophocles and translations from the German of handbooks on medieval geography. In 1872 he published a novel in two volumes, The Autobiography of a Cornish Rector. A daughter of Paul married S Beddey (q.v.) and another Edward Lee (q.v.).

D.N.B.; Ward; Godley, Letters; Jacobs; Wigram; Foster's Alumni Oxon. Portrait: Diocesan Library, Nelson.

Reference: Volume 2, page 81

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