He was to become Abbé Paul McPherson ‚ a French clerical designation given during the eighteenth century by Scots Catholics to Scots priests who spent a long time on the continent. His parents were Catholic and he was baptised by William Grant. His mother, Janet Cummin, died when Paul was six years old. His father, also Paul, was a tenant farmer and with others they worked the land in a system known as the runrig.

      A seminary for training priests was founded at Scalan in 1716, and as a young boy, Paul's impression of the area where he was reared may well have been of persecution and oppression due to the Hanoverian soldiers billeted close by. The Seminary of Scalan, within sight of his home, was burnt down in the aftermath of the '45 Rising and was a constant reminder of the oppression and may well have influenced his desire to enter the Seminary as soon as it was possible.

      From the age of 7 years, Paul was sent to an old woman in Scalan town who taught him to write and gave him tuition in religious studies, and before this he had spent a year in the Catholic school at Clashmore. In June 1767, Paul, aged 11, was admitted into the small Seminary at Scalan. It was struggling to keep its existence in part of the burnt out building and it is recorded that he enjoyed giving a hand with the rebuilding of the Seminary that took place that year.

      Two years later, at the age of 13, he travelled to the Scots College in Rome to continue his studies. Due to sickness he was transferred to Valladolid in Spain. He was eventually ordained Sub-Deacon in Spain in 1778 and on Easter Monday 1779 he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Segovia.