Actually Getting Started With This
OK, let me try to follow up on what I described in my introductory comments.
I want to focus attention on records and accounts of English, Caribbean, and early American Paynes/Paines who seem more likely to have been yet-determined ancestors of Paynes in America today. Evidence already exists, some due to the determined work of Patrick Payne in the last decade, of direct linkages between certain early New England and Virginia Paynes and earlier Paynes in English counties such as Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, and Suffolk. Patrick has shared some of his work with me, well beyond his many posts on those topics on the Payne-L, pre-1700 Payne, and other Rootsweb listservs. Since he might well be interested still in authoring a book and he requested that I not get into certain details of what he has covered in his PowerPoint materials, I'm spending little effort here on those Huntingdonshire, Suffolk, etc. relationships. Instead I'm focusing on other places, and particularly in the West Country of England, where Paynes seemed to be closely linked to a "merchant-mariner" network and/or colonial American settlers.
The most important location, it seems to me for my purposes, is an area in Somerset and near the key port of Bristol. So much of American colonial exploration and experiences was shaped by merchants trading out of London and Bristol. Bristol merchants and mariners explored and fished the waters of the American coast long before later Bristol and London merchants organized better publicized efforts such as the search for the Northwest Passage. My research into these merchant-mariner connections has led me to identify one or two Somerset Payne families about whom I have seen no real mention in genealogical work on the Paynes. I find it hard to believe that certain of these Payne family lines in Somerset and the surrounding counties near Bristol did not produce men and women (of some wealth and connection to other American settlers) who came to America. I think that some of these West Contry Paynes had mostly Puritan, and later Quaker, affinities during a turbulent seventeenth-century period and these led to trading and business connections among Paynes in places such as Barbados, Carolina (both the early Albemarle area and around Charleston), parts of Virginia and Maryland, Long Island and East Jersey, and certain locations in New England and Newfoundland. The intense political and religious discord of the Commonwealth and the Restoration period saw Paynes on both sides. Patrick and others have described some of the strong royalist or Cavalier associations of certain Paynes, particularly those having roots in Jersey and the Channel Islands (and eventually settling in St. Kitts and Nevis). I believe that Puritan connections were strong, though, for certain other Paynes interested in trading and settling in America -- much less in the sense of the eventually stict version of Puritan ideals supported by authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and much more related to practical alliances that favored their shipping/trading interests. Persecutions of those with Puritan interests in England and by Gov. Berkeley in early Virgina, and later persecutions of non-conformists and Quakers in New England and elsewhere, seem to me to have produced some of the difficulty or complexity for recent Payne researchers. Many Paynes in the sixteenth and seventeenth century were high-profile individuals and they had quite a few different kinds of connections to the royalty and wealthy business interests, but it appears that differences in the directions of their emerging political and religious persuasions must have led them to abandon earlier and closer family relationships. Another complexity for researchers is that Paynes from the provincal towns of England who became (or were becoming) successful often traveled to and lived in certain business districts and residential areas in and near London.
According to at least one source that I remember reading long ago, there were many men called Paganus (and corrupted over time as Payn or Payne) in England before and after 1066. It would be some time yet before the individuals known as "Paganus of wherever" began to have sons who assumed both a first name and the surname Payne. At least one of those Paganus and his family were given lands all across England and access to these far-flung places by the royalty. Patrick has identified at least one line of Paynes in Norfolk and later Huntingdonshire and Suffolk who were wealthy and well connected to royalty and commercial trading interests. He has also written about Payns in Jersey who probably moved later to the West Country of England to settle and develop trading interests there. However, there appears to have been Paynes living in Bristol and parts of Somerset very early who were also quite wealthy, some who developed royal and commercial trading connections, and later others who had associates and relatives who colonized America.
As early as 1460, a Thomas Payn as a merchant of Bristol was involved in shipping wine and other goods between Spain and England when the ship (the Marie of Biscaye) that he owned with several partners was captured by pirates and brought to Fowey in Cornwall [pp. 200-201, Prejudice and Promose in Fifteenth Century England by C.L. Kingsford, 1962 -- available on Google Books]. In 1481, a merchant known as John Payn of Bristol sued to King Edward IV for 2000 crowns of gold for captured merchandise and 1600 crown for damages and expenses to his ship when he and a business partner were trading in the town of Deva in what is now Spain and had their ship captured [p. 271, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Perserved in the Public Record Office, 1901 -- available on Google Books]. In the 1540s, an Anthony Payne of Bristol was a grocer and importer of wines [p. 75, The House of Commons, 1509-1558 by S.T. Bindoff, 1982]. The name of Payn, Payne or Paine appears occasionally in records of Bristol commerce well into the 1600s, for example, an Edward Paine appears on a 1618 list of members of the Society of Merchant Adventurers [p. 81, The History of the Society of Merchant Adventurers of the City of Bristol by John Latimer, 1970].
Perhaps the most significant of the Payne families living near Bristol is one that I've partially traced in available records from the 1200s to after 1600 who resided in Hutton and Criston in Somerset. I believe that several different members of this extended family received monastry or chantry land in the time of Henry VIII, and some had relationships with well known colonial traders and explorers/settlers. Another line of Paynes in the nearby area around Taunton, perhaps in some way related to the Hutton/Criston Paynes, also appear to have connections to important American traders and settlers. I keep collecting info on these Somerset Payne lines, as well as others in Gloucestershire, Dorset, etc. in hopes of connecting more of the dots. One of the more visible routes, though, for some of these individuals seems likely to have been to early Barbados, and perhaps Bermuda before that for a few of them. Later, by the 1660s or so, I think this route associated with West Country and other Paynes extended to a number of places along the east coast of America that held settlers with mostly Quaker and non-conformist sympathies. For example, I have noted the names of five or so Paynes with uncommon names who appear on transport records in parts of Virginia from 1660-1700. It seems interesting to me that the names of those who were listed as "transporting" these Paynes were Puritan/Quaker businessmen and traders with family connections beyond tobacco interests in Virginia.
I'll try in succeeding posts to explain and develop some of these Somerset and colonial relationships and records. This is very much a work in progress, though. I do think that these avenues for research have a good shot of helping us identify more direct ancestors of current Paynes, but I could certainly use help. If any of you by chance (or hard work) can comment on the Paynes that I'll be trying to describe, please do so by posting on this blog. It's easy and free to do so. I chose this site some years ago because it offered my graduate students an easy 1-2-3 step to subscribe and post comments on business issues and cases that I identified. You can also e-mail me at steve.payne@gcsu.edu. I don't expect much posting traffic here, largely I guess because I haven't run across many Payne researchers with broad interests for investigation. I believe, as I think Patrich has stated, that breakthroughs in identifying direct ancestors in the Old Country for most Paynes now will likely come from individuals who spend significant time in investigating and learning about the history (political, economic, and religious) around the names in Payne family charts. History was my favorite subject in grammar and high school, and it's nice to be able now to indulge in personal research that addresses questions of family history and identity. Perhaps some of us, such as Col. Brooke Payne and more recently Patrick, might not be able to answer that many of the remaining Payne mysteries, but we might be able to build more of a foundation for Payne research from which others in the future can answer more a lot more of the remaining questions.
More on those Somerset Paynes next time ----
OK, let me try to follow up on what I described in my introductory comments.
I want to focus attention on records and accounts of English, Caribbean, and early American Paynes/Paines who seem more likely to have been yet-determined ancestors of Paynes in America today. Evidence already exists, some due to the determined work of Patrick Payne in the last decade, of direct linkages between certain early New England and Virginia Paynes and earlier Paynes in English counties such as Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, and Suffolk. Patrick has shared some of his work with me, well beyond his many posts on those topics on the Payne-L, pre-1700 Payne, and other Rootsweb listservs. Since he might well be interested still in authoring a book and he requested that I not get into certain details of what he has covered in his PowerPoint materials, I'm spending little effort here on those Huntingdonshire, Suffolk, etc. relationships. Instead I'm focusing on other places, and particularly in the West Country of England, where Paynes seemed to be closely linked to a "merchant-mariner" network and/or colonial American settlers.
The most important location, it seems to me for my purposes, is an area in Somerset and near the key port of Bristol. So much of American colonial exploration and experiences was shaped by merchants trading out of London and Bristol. Bristol merchants and mariners explored and fished the waters of the American coast long before later Bristol and London merchants organized better publicized efforts such as the search for the Northwest Passage. My research into these merchant-mariner connections has led me to identify one or two Somerset Payne families about whom I have seen no real mention in genealogical work on the Paynes. I find it hard to believe that certain of these Payne family lines in Somerset and the surrounding counties near Bristol did not produce men and women (of some wealth and connection to other American settlers) who came to America. I think that some of these West Contry Paynes had mostly Puritan, and later Quaker, affinities during a turbulent seventeenth-century period and these led to trading and business connections among Paynes in places such as Barbados, Carolina (both the early Albemarle area and around Charleston), parts of Virginia and Maryland, Long Island and East Jersey, and certain locations in New England and Newfoundland. The intense political and religious discord of the Commonwealth and the Restoration period saw Paynes on both sides. Patrick and others have described some of the strong royalist or Cavalier associations of certain Paynes, particularly those having roots in Jersey and the Channel Islands (and eventually settling in St. Kitts and Nevis). I believe that Puritan connections were strong, though, for certain other Paynes interested in trading and settling in America -- much less in the sense of the eventually stict version of Puritan ideals supported by authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and much more related to practical alliances that favored their shipping/trading interests. Persecutions of those with Puritan interests in England and by Gov. Berkeley in early Virgina, and later persecutions of non-conformists and Quakers in New England and elsewhere, seem to me to have produced some of the difficulty or complexity for recent Payne researchers. Many Paynes in the sixteenth and seventeenth century were high-profile individuals and they had quite a few different kinds of connections to the royalty and wealthy business interests, but it appears that differences in the directions of their emerging political and religious persuasions must have led them to abandon earlier and closer family relationships. Another complexity for researchers is that Paynes from the provincal towns of England who became (or were becoming) successful often traveled to and lived in certain business districts and residential areas in and near London.
According to at least one source that I remember reading long ago, there were many men called Paganus (and corrupted over time as Payn or Payne) in England before and after 1066. It would be some time yet before the individuals known as "Paganus of wherever" began to have sons who assumed both a first name and the surname Payne. At least one of those Paganus and his family were given lands all across England and access to these far-flung places by the royalty. Patrick has identified at least one line of Paynes in Norfolk and later Huntingdonshire and Suffolk who were wealthy and well connected to royalty and commercial trading interests. He has also written about Payns in Jersey who probably moved later to the West Country of England to settle and develop trading interests there. However, there appears to have been Paynes living in Bristol and parts of Somerset very early who were also quite wealthy, some who developed royal and commercial trading connections, and later others who had associates and relatives who colonized America.
As early as 1460, a Thomas Payn as a merchant of Bristol was involved in shipping wine and other goods between Spain and England when the ship (the Marie of Biscaye) that he owned with several partners was captured by pirates and brought to Fowey in Cornwall [pp. 200-201, Prejudice and Promose in Fifteenth Century England by C.L. Kingsford, 1962 -- available on Google Books]. In 1481, a merchant known as John Payn of Bristol sued to King Edward IV for 2000 crowns of gold for captured merchandise and 1600 crown for damages and expenses to his ship when he and a business partner were trading in the town of Deva in what is now Spain and had their ship captured [p. 271, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Perserved in the Public Record Office, 1901 -- available on Google Books]. In the 1540s, an Anthony Payne of Bristol was a grocer and importer of wines [p. 75, The House of Commons, 1509-1558 by S.T. Bindoff, 1982]. The name of Payn, Payne or Paine appears occasionally in records of Bristol commerce well into the 1600s, for example, an Edward Paine appears on a 1618 list of members of the Society of Merchant Adventurers [p. 81, The History of the Society of Merchant Adventurers of the City of Bristol by John Latimer, 1970].
Perhaps the most significant of the Payne families living near Bristol is one that I've partially traced in available records from the 1200s to after 1600 who resided in Hutton and Criston in Somerset. I believe that several different members of this extended family received monastry or chantry land in the time of Henry VIII, and some had relationships with well known colonial traders and explorers/settlers. Another line of Paynes in the nearby area around Taunton, perhaps in some way related to the Hutton/Criston Paynes, also appear to have connections to important American traders and settlers. I keep collecting info on these Somerset Payne lines, as well as others in Gloucestershire, Dorset, etc. in hopes of connecting more of the dots. One of the more visible routes, though, for some of these individuals seems likely to have been to early Barbados, and perhaps Bermuda before that for a few of them. Later, by the 1660s or so, I think this route associated with West Country and other Paynes extended to a number of places along the east coast of America that held settlers with mostly Quaker and non-conformist sympathies. For example, I have noted the names of five or so Paynes with uncommon names who appear on transport records in parts of Virginia from 1660-1700. It seems interesting to me that the names of those who were listed as "transporting" these Paynes were Puritan/Quaker businessmen and traders with family connections beyond tobacco interests in Virginia.
I'll try in succeeding posts to explain and develop some of these Somerset and colonial relationships and records. This is very much a work in progress, though. I do think that these avenues for research have a good shot of helping us identify more direct ancestors of current Paynes, but I could certainly use help. If any of you by chance (or hard work) can comment on the Paynes that I'll be trying to describe, please do so by posting on this blog. It's easy and free to do so. I chose this site some years ago because it offered my graduate students an easy 1-2-3 step to subscribe and post comments on business issues and cases that I identified. You can also e-mail me at steve.payne@gcsu.edu. I don't expect much posting traffic here, largely I guess because I haven't run across many Payne researchers with broad interests for investigation. I believe, as I think Patrich has stated, that breakthroughs in identifying direct ancestors in the Old Country for most Paynes now will likely come from individuals who spend significant time in investigating and learning about the history (political, economic, and religious) around the names in Payne family charts. History was my favorite subject in grammar and high school, and it's nice to be able now to indulge in personal research that addresses questions of family history and identity. Perhaps some of us, such as Col. Brooke Payne and more recently Patrick, might not be able to answer that many of the remaining Payne mysteries, but we might be able to build more of a foundation for Payne research from which others in the future can answer more a lot more of the remaining questions.
More on those Somerset Paynes next time ----
posted by Steve | 9:08 PM
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