By 1700, Sheffield's population had reached 5,000, and a second Anglican place of worship was required to house a growing congregation.

Robert Downes, a local goldsmith, had paid £1,000 towards its construction and promised a further £30 a year, on condition that he and his descendants would have the right to appoint its minister.

However, the Vicar of Sheffield objected that, as St Paul's was a chapel of ease to his own church, he had the right to appoint a minister.

[2] Following the trend of supposed slum clearance in the 1930s, the church's congregation dwindled, and St Paul's closed in 1937.

[6] Some of the old stone was repurposed by the contractor who demolished the church, and can still be seen in a row of houses built in suburbs west of the city.