William Lodge Paley,

was born in Walden in Wensleydale in 1785 son of a farm labourer. One might suppose that being from a poor family and with the level of illiteracy in the 1700s, that William Lodge would not have been encouraged in his education. This clearly cannot have been the case because William became a schoolmaster in 1803 at the age of 18.

Most of his adult life was spent around Giggleswick and Settle where his forebears came from and, in addition to his role as schoolmaster, he supplemented his income by selling books to the better educated of the local townsfolk. He became master at Gigglewsick School which still exists today. There is a school house called Paley though whether it was named after a local benefactor or one of their old masters, I am not sure.

William Lodge Paley became something of a minor celebrity, years after his death, when attention was given to his diaries that give a snapshot of what life was like in the village.

Entries in the diaries show that William was an inquisitive man who travelled the country when he was able and took notice of much of the new developments that were happening. One such was the development of the new power loom and he wrote of his impression of them when he visited a factory in Lancaster.

He writes of Napoleon Bonaparte’s surrender to Captain Maitland of the Belepheron being a lesson to a vain man.

William Lodge Paley never married but his diaries show that was not necessarily through choice. One year he talks of taking tea at Mrs Preston’s at Stainforth and he finishes with saying "They are serious ladies. I should fancy Miss Alice as a wife".

William died in Settle in 1847, aged 62, two years after he retired from his profession