Abraham Walter Paulton

Abraham Walter Paulton (1812–1876) was an English politician and journalist.

Life He was son of Walter Paulton of Bolton, Lancashire, where he was born into a Roman Catholic family. He was sent to Stonyhurst College to be educated for the priesthood, but on leaving at the age of sixteen or seventeen he was apprenticed to a surgeon named Rainforth at Bolton.

Paulton took interest in politics, especially in the Corn Laws, and became a public speaker. In July 1838 he was in the Bolton Theatre when a lecturer on the corn laws faltered. Paulton took the stage, succeeded with audience, and undertook to lecture on the same subject the following week. Paulton gave up on the medical profession, was introduced to Richard Cobden, and engaged himself as a lecturer for the Anti-Corn-Law League.

In 1854 Paulton married the daughter of James Mellor of Liverpool, and from that time resided in London, or at his country house, Boughton Hall, Surrey. He died at Boughton Hall, on 6 June 1876, leaving a son and a daughter, and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery.