PAYNE, John (bet.1577/90-at least 1631), of Pallenswick, Hammersmith, Mdx. and Petworth, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. aft. May 1577 but bef. Feb. 1590, 1st. s. of Thomas Payne of Petworth and Elizabeth, da. of Anthony Walker, clerk of the Wardrobe. educ. ?Christ’s, Camb. c.1593. m. c.Aug. 1605, Eleanor, da. of Edward Savage I* of Bradley and Sherborne St. John, Hants, 1s. 1da. suc. fa. c.1620; uncle William Payne 1626.1

Offices Held

Biography

Payne was born sometime between 1577, when his father married, and 1590, when he was bequeathed £10 by his maternal grandfather. Depending on the precise date of his birth, he may have been the John Payne who was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge in about 1593. His father Thomas was a younger son, and Payne could expect as his patrimony only a handful of properties in St. Clement Danes, Westminster and Bishopsgate, London, along with the small estate at Petworth which his father had acquired by 1605. However, because Thomas’ elder brother William lacked a direct male heir, Payne also stood to inherit the family’s principal estates, comprising the old moated manor-house of Pallenswick with its dependent properties in and around Hammersmith, and the Yorkshire manor of Garton-on-the-Wold. Thomas had enjoyed a reversionary interest in these lands since 1573, and it was on the strength of this prospective inheritance that he was able to secure for Payne the hand of Eleanor Savage in 1605. To provide for Payne during William’s lifetime, Thomas undertook to convey to him his properties in London and Westminster, but this plan was thwarted by Payne’s younger brother, who secured their title himself. Following a lengthy legal dispute, Payne was promised the income from the properties until his uncle died, but by 1623 he was at odds with his brother over this agreement.2 The Savage family, meanwhile, were experiencing their own financial difficulties, and in 1624 the House of Lords heard a case between Payne’s brother-in-law Sir John Savage and some of his creditors. Payne was called as a witness, but apparently failed to appear.3

Pallenswick descended to Payne on his uncle’s death in 1626, and was recorded as his address when he was elected to Parliament for St. Ives two years later. He undoubtedly owed his nomination there to his wife’s family, for in 1622 one of her cousins had married Lord St. John (Lord John Paulet*), whose father, the marquess of Winchester, was the borough’s principal patron. Moreover, Payne’s brother-in-law, Edward Savage II, represented St. Ives in the 1626 Parliament. Payne himself made no recorded contribution to parliamentary business in either 1628 or 1629.4

Even after coming into his inheritance, Payne’s financial position was no more than comfortable. His subsidy rating in 1628 stood at £5 in lands; and the Pallenswick estate, which he and his son William sold three years later for £2,600, probably brought him an annual income of around £130. No subsequent record of Payne has been found. His family’s visitation record, compiled in 1633-4, suggests that he settled at Garton. He may have been dead by 1635 when William sold that manor. None of his immediate descendants sat in Parliament.5

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Paul Hunneyball

Notes

  • 1. Bp. of London Mar. Lics. 1520-1610 ed. G.J. Armytage (Harl. Soc. xxv), 75; PROB 11/75, f. 237; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 141; Al. Cant.; C2/Jas.I/S18/10; C.J. Feret, Fulham Old and New, i. 233. Vis. Suss. erroneously refers to Pallenswick as Patenswick, Suss.
  • 2. PROB 11/55, f. 138; C2/Jas.I/S18/10.
  • 3. LJ, iii. 422a.
  • 4. Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. xviii), 204; Harl. 2075, f. 31; CP; W.P. Courtney, Parl. Rep. of Cornw. 64-5.
  • 5. E179/142/308; C54/2894/24; 54/3043/3; Vis. Suss. 141.