John Paget was the second son of Thomas Paget of Humberstone, Leicestershire, where he was born in 1811. He was called to the Bar in 1838. In 1850, he became secretary to Lord Chancellor Truro and subsequently to Lord Chancellor Cranworth, and was appointed a police magistrate in 1864. He was a frequent contributor to Blackwood's magazine from 1860 to 1888, many of his articles being subsequently published under the title Paradoxes and puzzles, historical, judicial and literary (1874). Paget was also a talented artist. He provided illustrations to Edward Fordham Flower's Bits and bearing-reins (1875), in which Flower advocated for the abolition of equestrian harnesses and gag-bits. Politically, Paget was an ardent Whig. He joined the Reform Club when it was founded in 1836, and was a member of the library committee there for twenty-four years, and chairman of it from 1861 to 1865.
Subject Terms:
Paget, John, 1811–1898. | Great Britain. Parliament -- Reform. | Horses -- Pictorial works. | Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1830–1837. | Animal welfare -- Great Britain.