The Pauls were a merchant family based in Philadelphia and Belvidere, N.J. Members of the family first arrived in American in 1685 when Joseph Paul immigrated from Somersetshire, England. His descendants entered mercantile and general businesses, became doctors and lawyers, and were involved in real estate, politics, and public affairs.
Thomas Paul, the first generation represented here, was born October 6, 1760 and enlisted in the Revolutionary War in 1779. In the closing years of the war he went into business with Cornelius Comegys, forming the company of Comegys and Paul. Later, Joseph Atkinson, Paul's brother-in-law, joined the partners and the business became Comegys, Paul and Co. After the war, Paul was active in real estate division in Belvidere, New Jersey.
Thomas Paul named his son in honor of his business partner. Comegys Paul was born in Philadelphia on June 5, 1785 and graduated from Princeton in 1803 with a law degree. After his father's death, he returned to Philadelphia where he carried on a dry goods trading business as Canonge, Paul & Co. beginning in 1810. Later, in 1814, a change of partners inspired the renaming of the business to Comegys Paul & Co. Paul had many literary interests and was a member of The Athenaeum and the Library Company of Philadelphia.
John Marshall Paul, the brother of Comegys Paul, graduated from Williams College and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. John Rodman Paul, their cousin, was one year younger than John Marshall and also attended medical school. During a trip John Marshall Paul and John Rodman Paul took together in Europe from 1823 to 1825, they frequented the medical hospitals in Paris, thus increasing their medical knowledge. After his retirement, John Rodman was active as a manager and director of various institutions and involved in public affairs.
Henry Neill Paul II, the grandson of John Rodman Paul, was born in Philadelphia in 1863 and graduated from Princeton in 1884. He was a patent lawyer in Philadelphia and his literary interests centered on Shakespeare. His son, Henry Neill Paul III, was born in Philadelphia in 1900 and graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1922. He was a Philadelphia lawyer and was responsible for the items in this collection.
These papers consist of correspondence, accounts, and indentures that relate to the personal and business activities of the Paul family. The collection represents four generations of the Paul family as well as associated families. Series are divided primarily into family clusters.
The first series in the collection contains overview information about the Paul family, such as genealogical material, and the papers of Thomas Paul, the first generation of the Paul family represented. Personal and business materials relating to Comegys Paul are found in the second series. Series three is comprised predominantly of letters of John Marshall Paul, John Rodman Paul and Sidney Paul and other family members of the second generation. Most of these letters are to and from traveling family members. The fourth series is made up of papers of Henry Neill Paul I and his son Henry Neill Paul II. H. N. Paul I's papers are chiefly letter books and account books while his son's papers are mostly letters. Another branch of the family, Mary Pope Paul, John Marshall Paul's sister-in-law, and her children, are represented in the fifth series by their correspondence. The sixth and final series contains miscellaneous Paul family including wills, deeds, newspaper excerpts.
The researcher should keep in mind the following two pieces of information in order to minimize confusion regarding this collection. First, Comegys, Paul & Co. and Comegys Paul and Co. are not the same company. Thomas Paul of [Cornelius] Comegys, Paul and Co, named one of his sons Comegys Paul who in turn formed Comegys Paul and Co. Second, the letters of Henry Neill Paul II date from the earlier part of his life, 1888-9, and from the latter part of his life, 1938-52. He was born in 1863 and lived at least until 1952.
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The materials in this series consist primarily of pre-1800 papers regarding the Paul family and other related families. Included is family genealogy and indentures. The Thomas Paul papers, 1783-1798, consist of miscellaneous correspondence and records of his mercantile business, personal affairs, and his estate. Material relating to the Stadelman family and Elizabeth Stadelman Paul, primarily accounts and estate information, are also in this section.
This section contains the personal papers of Comegys Paul and business papers from the various companies with which he was involved. The items in box 2 relate to Paul's personal affairs and contain his letters, writings, accounts and indentures. Canoge, Paul & Co., the first company Paul founded, is represented in this series by partnership and general correspondence, receipts, bills, checks and invoices. Material from Comegys Paul & Co. includes correspondence and legal papers. Additional personal material pertaining to Comegys Paul and his family can be found in box 4. This material includes account books and several miscellaneous volumes, including lists of books and land surveys. Correspondence between Theodore S. Paul and Comegys Paul and business papers of Theodore Paul comprise the final sections of this series.
In this series are various letters written to family members, many while traveling abroad. John Marshall Paul and his cousin John Rodman Paul traveled to Europe together (1823-25) and their letters home are found here. Letters to and from a variety of different family members, including Henry Neill, John Rodman, Elizabeth Neill Paul, and Margaret Paul are in the second section of this series, which spans fifty years. Also in this series are letters from John Rodman Paul, Jr., from his trip to Europe in 1872. The final subseries contains the letters of Sidney Paul, John Rodman's sister.
The papers in this series represent Henry Neill Paul [I] and [II]. Henry Neill Paul [I's[letterpress books, 1858-1886, 1890-1899, contain letters on property in St. Paul, Minn., his other real estate holdings, Paul family estate business, letters written as an officer of the Manufacturers Land and Improvement Company, Gloucester Land Company, and the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities. His personal ledger, 1858-1859 and journal, 1879-1888, are also present. Also included are the Memorial Missionary Society of Calvary Presbyterian Church minutes for the time when Mrs. Elizabeth Stadelman Paul served as secretary, 1870-1883. Henry Neill Paul [II], papers represent his personal business, as well as his bibliophilic and genealogical interests. His papers include incoming and outgoing correspondence, arranged in rough chronological order. The final section of the series is composed of a small number of letters to Margaret Butler Paul, the wife of Henry Neill Paul [II].
Mary Pope married Frank Ellinwood Paul, the son of Theodore Paul and brother of John Marshall Paul. This series contains her papers and those of her two children. Included is personal and family correspondence, 1868-1920, together with some correspondence of Augustus Russell Paul, 1900-1937, mainly on agricultural subjects.
This series includes miscellaneous letters, mainly to family members not previously represented in the collection, wills, excerpts from
The collection is open for research.
Gift of Arthur Paul, 1975.
Accession number: 75:50
Cite as: [Indicate the cited item or series here], Paul Family Papers (Collection 2033), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
This collection was revisited for the EAD finding aid project. Much of the necessary processing was completed prior to December 2000, such as establishment of series and the creation of an inventory. The finding aid, compiled in December 2000, also took advantage of information about the Paul family in the collection folder. Series description and the scope and content sections of the finding aid, however, were written for the finding aid. Though much of the processing has already been completed, smallscale work, such as removal of metal fasteners, remains to be done.
Worrall Family Papers, (Collection 1387), contains some material that relates to the Paul family.