More Bristol Connections

In earlier posts, I've related how various Payns/Paynes in or near Bristol were closely connected to prominent colonial traders. This time I'll add somewhat to that account and suggest from where a few of those Payne merchants in the Bristol area came.

Two of the more significant Bristol-based investors in American colonization were Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge. In wills of both Aldworth and Elbridge, their kinsman George Payne was mentioned. George Payne had married a daughter of the sister of Aldworth and lived for a time in the Bristol sugarhouse of Aldworth. Merchants and Merchandise in Seventeenth Century Bristol (available on Google Books -- p. 4) mentions that a George Payne was apprenticed to this Robert Aldworth in 1616 in the sugar business, but he later became a Bristol merchant. Part of what is interesting in this source is George Payne's background. If my poor understanding of Latin (from a paragraph in this source) and English geographical references is correct, this George Payne was the son of the George Payne of St. Erth or St. Ives in county Cornwall. George Payne of St. Ives, gent. had a will proved in March 1617/18 in which he left 10 pounds each to a number of sons, including a George.

Another son of George Payne, gent. of St. Ives, Cornwall was a William Payne (b. 1597), and he was also a Bristol merchant in the mid-1600s. This William Payne was also closely related to well-known American traders and promoters. William Payne's will in 1669 provides the following info:
1) He was born in St. Erth near St. Ives and had a brother John Payne and a sister Jane Dunn of St. Erth (also mentioned in the 1617/18 will of George Payne, gent., of St. Ives); 2) he had two son-in-laws by the names of Joseph Yeamans and James Whitwood; and 3) he had a daughter Mary Payne who was his executrix and a son John who was in Ireland. Son-in-law James Whitwood was a Bristol merchant who owned a trading ship called the Contents of Bristol in 1675, but Joseph Yeamans is the more interesting connection. In 1647, Joseph Yeamans had married this William Payne's daughter Elizabeth, and he evenually inherited a Bristol brewhouse called the Rose and Crown that this William Payne had owned. Joseph Yeamans was a brother to both Sir Robert Yeamans and Sir John Yeamans. The Yeamans family were heavily involved in trade and colonization efforts in Barbados and Carolina. [Thanks to Karen Sims for pointing me in the direction of this will of William Payne of Bristol].

So there appear to have been two Payne merchants in Bristol who were brothers (George & William), and they were orginally from St. Erth/Ives, Cornwall where Paynes earlier, such as their father George, had been burgesses and/or portreeves/mayors. Their older brother John Payne seems to have remained in that part of Cornwall, where he and his sons were land owners and involved in local government. St. Ives in Cornwall has a connection to another prominent Payne family in London and later in Petworth, Sussex [that researcher Dick Payne has focused on recently] . A John Payne, described as of Pallenswick in Hammersmith, was elected as a member of Parliament in 1628 (W.P. Courtney's Parliamentary History of Cornwall, p. 65).