[8] It lies 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Lexington on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River.

[9] Joseph Houston settled a station in the area in 1776, but was forced to relocate due to prior land grants.

In 1786, Lawrence Protzman purchased the area of present-day Paris from its owners, platted 250 acres (100 ha) for a town, and offered land for public buildings in exchange for the Virginia legislature making the settlement the seat of the newly formed Bourbon County.

[citation needed] One Frenchman was noted in a 19th-century state history as having come from Calcutta, via Bengal, and settled here as a schoolteacher.

[10] The post office was briefly known as Bourbontown or Bourbonton in the early 19th century, but there is no evidence that this name was ever formally applied to the town itself.

[2] African American students attended Paris Colored High School.