His father was an impoverished former favourite of the exiled king, James II, and was imprisoned twice as a suspected Jacobite.
Later in 1694, Paston attended on Portland during his embassy in Paris and he obtained a commission in the Life Guards the same year.
However, when Joseph Williamson vacated his Thetford seat in 1699, Paston was chosen in his place.
In April 1705, bailiffs attempted unsuccessfully to arrest Paston as a result of his association with his father's debts.
He sold his regiment in 1710; he was in receipt of a pension by 1716, and was twice given ex gratia payments from George I's civil list, to meet "his present necessities".