In preparation for his university studies he was employed at the office of the bailiff of Lower Telemark and Bamble Bendix Plesner, his mother's cousin, in 1816.
In 1819 he enrolled at the law faculty at the Royal Frederick University, where he graduated in 1822.
He was the grandfather of Christopher Tostrup Paus, who was heir to the timber company Tostrup & Mathiesen and who was conferred the title of count by Pope Pius XI, as well as to British diplomat Christopher Lintrup Paus and road engineer Hans Wangensten Paus.
Henrik Johan Paus is interred at Lie cemetery.
[1] In the television series An Immortal Man from 2006, he was portrayed by Eindride Eidsvold.