| 1836 | became Curator of St. Bartholomew Hospital Museum |
| 1838 | demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy at St. Batholemews |
| 1841 | appointed surgeon to the Finsbury Dispensary |
| 1844 | married Lydia, youngest daughter of the Rev. Henry North |
| 1847 | appointed an assistant-surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital |
| 1847 | became professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He held this professorship for six years and each year gave six lectures in surgical pathology. (The first edition of these lectures, which were the chief scientific work of his life, was published in 1853 as Lectures on Surgical Pathology.) |
| 1851 | elected Fellow of the Royal Society |
| 1851 | resigned the wardenship of St. Bartholomew's Hospital |
| 1858 | appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria |
| 1863 | appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales |
| 1867 | appointed Sergeant Surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital |
| 1871 | became the 1st Baronet Paget of Harewood Place |
| 1871 | narrowly escaped death from infection following an accidental cut during a post mortem investigation. Owing to the effect on his health James resigned from Bartholomew's and restricted himself to consulting practice |
| 1873 | was elected Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons (2years) |
| 1875 | was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons |
| 1878 | gave up operating, but for eight or ten years longer he still had a very heavy consulting practice |
| 1880 | gave a memorable address on "Elemental Pathology," at Cambridge setting forth the likeness of certain diseases of plants and trees to those of the human body |
| 1881 | was President of the International Medical Congress held in London |
| 1883 | on the death of Sir George Jessel, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of London |
| 1889 | he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on vaccination |
| ALSO | Doctor of Honour of Law Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh |
| A Sketch of the Natural History of Great Yarmouth and its Neighbourhood, containing Catalogues of the Species of Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Fish, Insects and Plants, at present known, James & Charles Paget (Yarmouth, 1834) |
| A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pathological Specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (Vol. I 1846; Vol. II 1847; Vol. III 1848; Vols. IV & V 1849; 2nd ed. 1882-85) |
| A Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical Museum of St Bartholomew's Hospital (Vol. I 1847; Vol. II, 1852) |
| Handbook of Physiology: assisted by J. Paget, William Senhouse, Sir James Paget (London, 1848) |
| Lectures on Surgical Pathology (London, 1853; 2nd ed. 1863; 3rd ed. 1870; 4th ed. 1876) |
| Clinical Lectures and Essays, Howard Marsh (ed.) (London, 1875, transl. into French, 1877) |
| The Hunterian Oration (London, 1877) |
| On Some Rare and New Diseases (London, 1883) |
| Studies of Old Case Books (London, 1891) |
| John Hunter, Man of Science and Surgeon, 1728-93; with an Introduction by Sir James Paget, Stephen Paget (London, 1897) |
| Memoirs and Letters of Sir James Paget, ed. by Stephen Paget (London, 1901) Posthumously published |
| Selected Essays and Addresses, edited by S. Paget, Sir James Paget, Stephen Paget (ed.) (London, 1902) |