The traditional Cornish name of Paul is Brewinney. Much of the history of Paul is connected with its
parish church,
St Pol de Léon's Church which is said to have been founded in 490, a very uncertain date and not documented by
Paul (or Paol) Aurelian, a Welsh saint. There is no historical evidence to support that he ever came to West Penwith. He was the founder of the cathedral at
Saint-Pol-de-Léon, a
commune. However this church may also have been dedicated to
Paul the Apostle, or
Paulinus of York, there is no evidence to prove any of these three Saint Pauls was the original dedicatee of the church. It was only named 'St. Pol-de-Leon' in 1907 and is probably connected with
Henry Jenner who (with
W. C. Borlase) opposed alleged 'Englishness' and consistent spelling of Cornish place names on OS maps. The first documented name for Paul Church comes from the registers of
Bishop Bronescombe, when on 2 May 1259 the first recorded priest was installed, as Rector in his own right, in the 'Ecclesie Sancti Paulini'--Church of Saint Paulinus (but either Paulinus of York or Paulinus of Wales could have been intended). However it seems less likely that either of these two saints were intended as
Henry III granted a charter in 1266 for a Fair to be held in Paul on 12 March, being the feast of Paul Aurelian. Paul and its church have an association with
Mousehole as the church has served as Mousehole's parish church since its inception. Paul was one of the communities along with Mousehole,
Newlyn, and
Penzance to be destroyed in the
Spanish raid of 1595 carried out by
Carlos de Amésquita. Captain Stephen Hutchens (died 1709,
Port Royal,
Jamaica) bequeathed £500 to the building of
almshouses and the maintenance of six poor men and six poor women born in the parish. At the beginning of the 19th century it was found that the almshouses, instead of being administered as bequeathed, were being used as a
workhouse for all the poor of the parish. Consequently, a new poor house was built on Trungle Moor.
Cornish language (memorials) Within the village churchyard there is a memorial to
Dolly Pentreath, believed to be the last native speaker of
Cornish, although
this claim may be disputed.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte and the Vicar of Paul opened this memorial in 1860. The
Cornish language writers
Nicholas Boson,
Thomas Boson and
John Boson are all buried in Paul Churchyard, and a monument in the church by John Boson (to Arthur Hutchens, d. 1709) is the only surviving lapidary inscription in traditional Cornish. ==Parish==