Bristol Traders

I’ve stated that that certain Paynes found in the Taunton, Somerset area in the late 16th and early 17th century, and almost as likely some of the Paynes of Hutton, were Bristol merchants who were heavily involved with other Bristol merchants who conducted American trade and colonization. Among the most prominent Bristol merchants having connections in Atlantic trading in the early 1600s were six men: John Barker, Robert Aldworth, Giles Elbridge, Richard Holsworthy, Matthew Haviland, and Humphrey Hooke. John Barker was a member, and at one time the master, of the Merchant Adventurers Society of Bristol. He and other Bristol merchant adventurers founded the plantation in Newfoundland known as Bristol’s Hope. Aldworth and Elbridge are perhaps best known in American history for their having received the Pemaquid Patent (12,000 acres on the Pemaquid Peninsula in Maine) which was granted in 1631. Robert Aldworth’s niece married his partner Giles Elbridge, Aldworth owned several ships doing Atlantic trade, and he was also a sugar refiner in Bristol. Richard Holsworthy was a mayor of Bristol, and a member of the Newfoundland Company. Richard Holsworthy’s first wife was Mary Haviland, the daughter of Bristol merchant (and also mayor in 1607) Matthew Haviland. Humphrey Hooke’s daughter Mary was Giles Elbridge’s second wife. Humphrey Hook was a Bristol alderman whose son Humphrey, along with several other Bristol traders, received a large grant of land in northern Virginia in 1649. William Hooke, son of Alderman Humphrey Hook, went to Maine to check on the Agamenticus land grant that his father had received. These and other Bristol merchants, such as John and Philip Guy, were heavily invested in the American colonies and often sought to convince those they knew and did business with in the area near Bristol to participate in these colonization activities.

Part of this interconnected merchant network in the Bristol area included Paynes. John Barker’s apprentice in 1615 was an Edward Payne, who a few years later was listed as a member of this merchant adventurer society. A Nicholas Payne (a common first name in several generations of the Hutton Paynes) was also a Bristol merchant in the early 1600s doing business in Europe. A George Payne married Elizabeth Crooke or Crockhay, who was a niece of Robert Aldworth (his sister Elizabeth Aldworth had married Elizabeth’s father Benjamin Crockhay, also a merchant adventurer of Bristol). This George Payne is mentioned as a Bristol merchant in both Giles Elbridge’s and Robert Aldworth’s wills, and he had lived at one time in Aldworth’s “sugarhouse” at St. Peter’s Churchyard in Bristol. Perhaps the strongest Payne connection to these Atlantic traders was the third wife, Tacy or Thasia Payne, of Bristol mayor and trader Matthew Haviland. She appears to be the daughter of John Payne of Taunton and his wife Tacy (the daughter of Nicholas Holwey, gent, of Taunton) who were listed in my last post. Tacy Payne married Matthew Haviland in the summer of 1618 and less than a year before he died in March of 1619. A son of Matthew Haviland by his second wife, Joyce Colston, and also named Matthew had a will in 1624 in which he noted that his father’s will allotted him 500 pounds to provide 50 pounds annually for Mrs. Thasia Haviland. The task of providing for Thasia (Payne) Haviland after his death was directed to his trusty friend and kinsman Richard Holsworthy. Marriages between Paynes and this Haviland family continued in later generations.

There is certainly much more that I can and will add later about Payne connections to Bristol area traders, but I’ll keep this post fairly short. Much of my research time recently has been devoted to tracing newly discovered connections between Bristol area Paynes and Paynes who were operating out of London, also involved in business and colonization, and living nearby in places such as Sussex. It seems to me that around the turn of the seventeenth century certain Payne families in Sussex (and fairly close to London) were somewhat similar to Paynes in particular areas of Somerset (and near Bristol). Paynes in both of these locations were very involved with big city traders doing business in America. Paynes were among other wealthy families there who had manors, were involved in business relationships, and often intermarried.