Mister John PAYNE was born about 1615 in England and migrated to Virginia sometime before 1653. The earliest extant, well identified record of his is dated 1653 in Loudoun County Virginia. His wife’s name was Margaret, but it has been impossible to determine her maiden name. She first appears in the records in 1652. In 1655, her husband was granted land for her importation. She was possibly his second wife.

Mister John PAYNE was a ship owner. In 1653, the Loudoun County Court paid him for provisioning and transporting Burgesses from Lancaster to Jamestown. In 1655 and 1656, Mister John PAYNE was appointed collector of tithes for Loudoun County, at which time he was charged with seven tithables. In 1654, Mister John PAYNE was ordered by the Court to appraise the contents of Mister Raleigh TRAVERS' tobacco warehouse.

In the same year, the records show that he made a trip to England and upon his return in 1655, he moved to and occupied his plantation on Pepetick Creek, then in Loudoun County near what is now Leedstown. This town was not founded, however until 1742, the locality being first know as Rappahannock, and later as Brays.

From 1649-1690 documents indicate that Mister John PAYNE was a planter, carpenter and boat owner. It does not appear that he was a shipmaster, but that he owned sailboats of considerable tonnage. These he operated at a profit, and which the court occasionally employed. It is not improbable that he built boats of lighter draft.

In 1656, Mister John PAYNE was ordered by the Loudoun County Court to make for the county one pair of stocks and a whipping-post. For the wood-work he was to receive 400#, the iron-work being otherwise provided. In that same year Rappahannock County was organized and possibly these implements were for the new county. From this time onward, records relating to John PAYNE are found in Rappahannock County. Mister John PAYNE was not a day laborer but the overseer of construction, when he was not supervising the cultivation of his plantations, operating his sloops, or attending to the affairs of the Parish vestry.

There is no indication of his social standing, except the title of Mister which in the majority of these references preceding his name, may be taken as denoting that he belonged to the gentry class. In 1656, Mister. John PAYNE was one of the Vestrymen of Sittingbourne Parish, in Rappahannock County of which Mr. Francis DOUGHTY was Rector and which probably was named after a town in Kent England.

Mr. John PAYNE owned large quantities of land at various times and places during the period of 1649 to 1690 including 1500 acres at Occoquan in what is now Prince William County, 1485 acres on Golden Vale Creek in what is now Caroline County called Hazelwood and considerable land in the vicinity of what is now Pope’s Creek, in addition to his holdings in Lancaster and his seated property on Pepetick Creek. Before his death, he apparently disposed of all this land except that which lay on Pepetick Creek. The records in the land Office in the Capitol at Richmond show that between 1653 and 1666, nine patents aggregating over 5116 acres were issued to him of which 1356 were allotted for importing 28 persons into the colony. Of this total amount granted, 3443 acres bordered on Pepetick Creek and its branches.

Those from whom Mister John PAYNE collected tithes in Lancaster and others with whom he associated in a way suggested that they were in a general sense his neighbors. Among them and also part of this family were the GRYMES family, the BRENT family, John JONES and Thomas HAWKINS.

Documented records establish the fact that Mister. John PAYNE was a man of varied activities, of considerable means and influence in his county, and of high social standing. In 103 court records referring to him, there is not one suit against him. Of the very few suits in which he was the plaintiff, the first is interesting. In 1652 while living in Lancaster he brought suit against Christopher RIPHAM whose wife had used abusive language respecting Mrs. PAYNE. RIPHAM was fined and his wife was required to make public apology to the Court.

Mister John PAYNE had the following children, Richard, John, William and George. It is believed that he had one or more daughters, but his will cannot be found, although it is recorded that he made one.

Mister John PAYNE lived at Red House (now called Cedar Hill and in Westmoreland County) which stands on the grant of 298 acres to Mister John PAYNE and described as beginning one mile from the Rappahannock River on the West side of Pepetick Creek adjacent to Thomas HAWKINS. Court records indicate that he continued to live at Red House until his death, which is assumed to have occurred in the winter of 1689-90. There are records in Rappahannock County stating that he left a will. The will book covering this period has been lost, so that the only suggestive evidence of the date of his death is found in the records of Middlesex County, where on 7 April 1690, a deed by Henry THACKER, who married John PAYNE’S grand-daughter, refers to John PAYNE as “Late of Rappahannock County, deceased.” Miscellaneous documents as late as 1689 in which he is mentioned imply that he was still living in that year.

The old family grave-yard, where John PAYNE is buried after disuse was until 1935 surrounded by the remains of a rapidly disappearing mound and overgrown with a dense tangle of brush, weeds, honeysuckle and periwinkle. On May 11, 1935, in the presence of about 150 members of the family, a concrete wall around the 15 remaining gravestones was dedicated. The original burying ground was 80 feet by 130 feet. The present wall occupies the exact NW corner of the original ground, the major axis of which ran about North and South. Most of the early PAYNES are buried there, including Mister John PAYNE. His grave is not marked, but a bronze tablet indicates the approximate location.
Submitted By; Caroline Hawkins Vowell of Woodstock, Georgia The Children of John and Margaret PAYNE were;

1. RICHARD,  1633-1696,  m. Millicent_______.
2. JOHN,  b. abt. 1639.  m. 1668 Ann WALKER.
3. WILLIAM,  b. bef. 1652,   d. 1698,  m. (1) 1688 Frances CLEMENT,  m. (2) 1691 Elizabeth POPE b. 16 June 1667,   d. 1716.
4. GEORGE,  b. 1653,  d. 1711,  m. Miss WHITE

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