Born at Easingwold in Yorkshire, he was the grandson of William Paley, and was educated at Shrewsbury school and St John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1838). His conversion to Roman Catholicism forced him to leave Cambridge in 1846, but he returned in 1860 and resumed his work as "coach," until in 1874 he was appointed professor of classical literature at the newly founded Roman Catholic University at Kensington. This institution was closed in 1877 for lack of funds, and Paley removed to Boscombe, where he died.
His most important editions are:
Aeschylus, with Latin notes (1844-1847), the work by which he first attracted attention
Sophocles' Philoctetes, Electra, Trachiniae, Ajax (1880)--all with English commentary and forming part of the Bibliotheca classica
select private orations of Demosthenes (3rd ed., 1896-1898)
Theocritus (2nd ed., 1869), with brief Latin notes, one of the best of his minor works
He possessed considerable knowledge of architecture, and published a Manual of Gothic Architecture (1846) and Manual of Gothic Mouldings (6th ed., 1902).
In 1776 Paley was presented to the rectory of Musgrave in Westmorland, supplemented at the end of the year by the vicarage of Dalston, and presently exchanged for that of Appleby.
But by placing Paley's facts in a new light, the theory of evolution has deprived his argument of its force, so far as it applies the idea of special contrivance to individual organs or to species.
Paley displays little or no spirituality of feeling; but this is a matter in which one age is apt to misjudge another, and Paley was at least practically benevolent and conscientiously attentive to his parish duties.
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