William Payne Sr

William PAYNE (1502 – 1545) was  Alex’s 14th Great Grandfather; in the Shaw line.  So far I’ve only identified 22 immigrant families who  had family crests at the time, out of more than 400  in all. (See my tag  Immigrant Coat of Arms)   Tracing the Payne family manors and their Tudor era friends has been a rare treat.  Ironically, many of the Payne family associates were Roman Catholic Recusants, while their children and grandchildren became Puritans and Separatists.   While seemingly opposite, both groups defied religious authority.

The Arms of Payne of Hengrave: ”Argent on a fess engrailed Gules between three martlets Sable, as many mascles or, within a bordure engrailed of the second, charged with fourteen bezants. Crest : a Wolf’s head erased bezantee.”

At first I couldn’t  find a picture that matches this description and made this close approximation

Payne Coat of Arms Sussex, not exact, but pretty close. Instead of these three roses, it should have three golden diamond-shaped charges, with diamond shaped holes. It’s also missing a bordure engrailed of the second, charged with fourteen bezants.

(I finally found from a 1912 book “The Paynes of Hamilton” from Open Library.org )

Genealogies say William Payne was born about 1502 in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England.

However, he was Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham’s bailiff of Hengrave Manor, a  position of note and importance.  Henry VIII accused Buckingham  of treason and Buckingham lost his head in 1521.  William must have been much older than 19 at the time.  According to Gage’s 1822 book, History of Hengrave, William Payne seized some lands called Charmans from Thomas Lucas,  Lord of the Manor of neighboring Risby in 2 Henry VIII (1511).  William Payne was involved in an extended legal battle with Lucas which was not settled until several years later in favor of Buckingham.  (For the accusations and counter-accusations, See excerpts from the History of Hengrave below)

Similiarly, William’s son Henry must have been born much before 1530 (see discussion below)

William’s  parents were Edmund PAYNE and Elizabeth WALTON. He married about 1530? in Bosworth to Margery ASH. William died 25 Feb 1545 in Nowton located on the southern edge of Bury St Edmunds,, Suffolk, England.

Margery Ash was born about 1500 in Thurlow, (Little Thurlow/ Great Thurlow) Suffolk Her parents were Thomas ASH and [__?__]. Margery died in 1536 Hengrave, Suffolk.

Children of William and Margery:

Norman  Payne Ancestors 

The names Payne and Paine came to England during the Normal  conquest. In Normandy of 1066, the Latin world Paganus meant villager. Since villagers resisted conversion to Christianity longer than did city dwellers, it also came to mean “unbeliever”  (today’s pagan.)   Many have attempted to draw a loose connection with the Latin paganus = pagan due to the Old English word paien being derived from the Latin word Paganus, but there is no hard evidence to support this theory.

The surname Payne originates in France and is a variation of the name Payen (Payen; Payens). It is one of the most revered and ancient surnames of the noblesse families of France. The original family lived in Payen, Normandy, where they held family seats in Payen and Dauphine . During the Norman Conquest of England and the great migration, members of this family migrated to England.  Upon migrating to England, the Payn’s were then granted lands and a family seat in Sussex by Duke William Of Normandy for their distinguished assistance in the battle of Hastings. The first record of Paynes outside of France was in England in the Domesday Book completed in 1086, shortly after the Norman Conquest.including one Pagen who had land near Market Bosworth, the ancestral home of this lineage.

The most notable & historical member of this family is Hugh de Payens (1070 – 1136), the co-founder & first Grand Master of the Knights Templar. The Paynes are traditionally a Catholic family.

Sir Thomas PAYNE, Knight

The first definite information  of the Payne family, is from the “Visitation of Suffolk County,” compiled in 1561, but afterwards extended, at two or three different times, within the next century. This work was afterwards supplemented by Gage in his “The history and antiquities of Suffolk: Thingoe hundred,” both works covering the Payne family in detail.  These writers both describe them as resident of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire, near the famous Field of Bosworth where the last great battle of the Roses was fought and the fate of the Houses of York and Lancaster decided Aug 22 1485 by the death of Richard III and the victory of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, soon to be Henry VII.

Market Bosworth Today

There is evidence of settlement on the hill at Market Bosworth  since the Bronze Age.  Remains of a Roman villa have been found on the east side of Barton Road.  Bosworth as an Anglo-Saxon village dates from the 8th century.  Before the Norman Conquest of 1066, there were two manors at Bosworth one belonging to an Anglo-Saxon knight named Fernot, and some sokemen.  Following the Norman conquest, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, both the Anglo-Saxon manors and the village were part of the lands awarded by William the Conqueror to the Count of Meulan from Normandy, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester.

Subsequently the village passed by marriage dowry to the English branch of the French House of Harcourt.  King Edward I gave a royal charter to Sir William Harcourt allowing a market to be held every Wednesday.  On May 12 1285, the village took the name Market Bosworth and became a town.   The two oldest buildings in Bosworth, St. Peter’s Church and the Red Lion pub, were built during the 14th century.The Battle of Bosworth took place to south of the town in 1485 as the final battle in the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

In 1509 the manor passed from the Harcourts to the Grey family.In 1554, following the beheading of Lady Jane Grey, the manor of Bosworth was among lands confiscated in the name of Mary I of England and her husband Philip II of Spain. They awarded the manor to the Catholic nobleman Edward Hastings. In 1567, his heirs sold it to Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, who never lived in Bosworth. The first Dixie to live in Bosworth was his grand-nephew, Sir Wolstan Dixie of Appleby Magna, who moved to the town in 1608.  He started construction of a manor house and park, as well as establishing the free Dixie Grammar School.    Thomas Hooker (1586  – 1647) – Puritan, founder of Connecticut attended the school. The modern hall, Bosworth Hall, was the work of Sir Beaumont Dixie, 2nd Baronet (1629–1692).

William’s  grandfather,  Sir Thomas PAYNE, Knight,  is the earliest of our Paine ancestors to be known for certain. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas PULTNEY, Knight. The dates of Sir Thomas’ birth, or death, are not  given, but the dates at which his descendants came upon the stage of active life, show that he must have been born in the early part of the fifteenth century. He had three sons: Robert, William, Edmund. The record shows the younger of the three alive in 1540, at which time he had a grandson, then a rich and active man. This fact would seem to establish the birth of Sir Thomas,  according to the usual average of life and birth, in the early 15th century.

Sir Thomas Pultney was an ancestor of William Pulteney,  (1684 – 1764) an English politician, a Whig, created the first Earl of Bath in 1742 by King George II; he is sometimes stated to have been Prime Minister, for the shortest term ever (two days), though most modern sources reckon that he cannot be considered to have held the office.

Children of Sir Thomas and Margaret

i. Robert Payne

What became of the two elder sons of Sir Thomas is not recorded, which shows conclusively that neither of them removed to Suffolk County, and as no mention is made of them in the “Visitation of Leicestershire,” it is equally clear that they did not remain there and have progeny. In the “Visitation of Huntingdonshire,” an adjoining county, the genealogy of a ” Robert Paine” is given, the particulars of which would seem to establish identity with Robert, the son of Thomas, except that his Coat of Arms was altogether different.

As different sons often did adopt divers coats from their father, this fact does not disprove the identity. This family was generally settled at St. Neot’s, a place near where Edmund’s family resided in and about Bury St.  Edmonds and Nowton in the County of Suffolk.

ii. William Payne

iii. Edmund PAYNE

Edmund PAYNE

William’s father Edmund PAYNE was born about 1470 in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England. He married Elizabeth WALTON, about 1490.    Edmund was alive in 1540, the 32nd year of the reign of Henry VIII.   He and Elizabeth had several sons.  William was the eldest and his heir.  Edmund’s place of residence was undoubtedly that of his birth, at Market Bosworth, Leicesteshire. Edmund died after 1540 in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England.

Elizabeth Walton was born about 1470 in Leicestershire, England. Her parents were Robert WALTON and [__?__].  Elizabeth died in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England

William PAYNE Sr.

William removed from Leicestershire to Suffolk and took up his residence at Hengrave. Carrying with him the use of his grandfather’s Coat of Arms, this came thence forth, in heraldic history to be known as the “Coat and Crest of Leicestershire, and Suffolk, ” and is especially known as belonging to “Payne of Hengrave.” He was a man of much note and importance in his day, being in the service of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, as bailiff of his Manor of Hengrave.

Buckingham was in attendance at court at the creation of Henry VII’s second son, the future King Henry VIII, as Duke of York on 9 November 1494, and was made a Knight of the Order of the Garterin 1495. In September 1497 he was a captain in the forces sent to quell a rebellion in Cornwall.

According to Davies, as a young man Buckingham played a conspicuous part in royal weddings and the reception of ambassadors and foreign princes, ‘dazzling observers by his sartorial splendour’. At the wedding of Henry VII’s then eldest son and heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon in 1501, he is said to have worn a gown worth £1500. He was the chief challenger at thetournament held the following day.

At the accession of King Henry VIII, Buckingham was appointed on 23 June 1509, for the day of the coronation only, Lord High Constable, an office which he claimed by hereditary right. He also served as Lord High Steward at the coronation, and bearer of the crown. In 1509 he was made a member of the King’s Privy Council.

According to Davies, in general Buckingham exercised little direct political influence, and was never a member of the King’s inner circle.

Buckingham fell out dramatically with the King in 1510, when he discovered that the King was having an affair with the Countess of Huntingdon, the Duke’s sister and wife of the 1st Earl of Huntingdon. She was taken to a convent sixty miles away. There are some suggestions that the affair continued until 1513. However, he returned to the King’s graces, being present at the marriage of Henry’s sister, served in Parliament and being present at negotiations with Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Buckingham, with his Plantagenet blood and numerous connections by descent or marriage with the rest of the aristocracy, became an object of Henry’s suspicion. During 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry VIII authorized an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King’s death and intending to kill the King; however, the King’s mind appeared to be decided and conviction was certain. He was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May.

Under the manorial system a bailiff of the manor represented the peasants to the lord, oversaw the lands and buildings of the manor, collected fines and rents, and managed the profits and expenses of the manor and farm.  Bailiffs were outsiders and free men, that is, not from the village. Borough bailiffs would be in charge of the villagers in the town.

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (1478 – 1521) – William Payne was bailiff of his Manor of Hengrave.

In 1521, the Duke having been convicted of conspiring against King Henry VIII, to establish himself in power as his successor, was, by order of the King, put death. The office thus becoming vacant by the death of the Duke, Payne lost his place as deputy, and was obliged to retire to private life.

The Duke’s successor Sir Thomas Kytson , however, appointed William Payne’s son Henry to the office of bailiff previously held by the father.   Sir Thomas Kytson (1485–1540) was a wealthy English merchant, sheriff of London, and builder of Hengrave Hall.

Since Henry Payne became good friends with Sir Thomas’ wife and her second husband John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath   and was also counsel for the Earl and Countess of Bath, I’ll cover Sir Thomas Kytson’s life and family in Henry’s section, though I’ll cover Hengrave Hall,  the magnificent manor he built, here.

Hengrave Hall

Here is the story of Hengrave, the Stafford Dukes of Buckingham and the role of William Payne.  in securing the property from Gage’s 1822 book, History of Hengrave 

For your orientation, here are the three Dukes of Buckingham from this creation.    On  Sep 14 1444, Humphrey Stafford, 6th Earl of Stafford, was created Duke of Buckingham. He was the son of Anne of Gloucester, “Countess of Buckingham”, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham (later Duke of Gloucester), youngest son of King Edward III of England. Stafford was an important supporter of the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses, and was killed at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460.

He was succeeded by his grandson, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who aided Richard III in his claiming the throne in 1483 (Edward IV of England‘s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville having been declared null and void and Edward’s sons illegitimate by Act of Parliament Titulus Regius), but who then led a revolt against Richard and was executed later that same year.

His son, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was restored to the title upon Henry VII‘s accession to the throne in 1485, but he was ultimately executed for treason in 1521 due to his opposition to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII‘s chief advisor. At this time the title became extinct.

19 Henry VI = 1441, three years before Stafford was created Duke of Buckingham

In 1521 Kytson purchased from Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham the manor of Hengrave,Suffolk, and the manor of Colston Basset  in Nottinghamshire. On the attainder and execution of the Duke of Buckingham in the following year, Kytson was for a time deprived of the estates, but they were restored to him, confirmed by an act of parliament of 1524.  (He had great influence in the City of London)

Subsequently he purchased several other manors in Suffolk from the crown. Besides Hengrave, he had houses at Westley and Risby in Suffolk, and at Torbrian in Devon.

At Hengrave, Kytson obtained a license from Henry VIII to build an embattled manor-house on a magnificent scale. The building was begun in 1525, and finished in 1538. An elaborate inventory of the furniture and goods at Hengrave, taken in 1603 (Gage, History of Hengrave 1822, pp. 21-37), illustrates its great extent and elegance, and the vast wealth of its owner.    To give you an idea of the scale, here is the start of the inventory just listing the apartments and offices.  Henry Payne’s chamber is the fifth listed.

Hengrave Hall is a Tudor manor house near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and was the seat of the Kytson and Gage families 1525-1887. Both families were Roman Catholic Recusants.

Hengrave Hall

Work on the house was begun in 1525 by Thomas Kytson the Elder, a merchant and member of the Mercers Company, who completed it in 1538. The house is one of the last examples of a house built around an enclosed courtyard with a great hall. It is constructed from stone taken from Ixworth Priory (dissolved in 1536) and white bricks baked at Woolpit. The house is notable for an ornate oriel window incorporating the royal arms of Henry VIII, the Kytson arms and the arms of the wife and daughters of Sir Thomas Kytson the Younger (Kytson quartered with Paget; Kytson quartered with Cornwallis; Kytson quartered with Darcy; Kytson quartered with Cavendish).

The house is embattled, and in the great hall there is an oriel window with fan vaulting by John Wastell, the architect of the chapels at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. The chapel contains 21 lights of Flemish glass commissioned by Kytson and installed in 1538, depicting salvation history from the creation of the world to the Last Judgement. This is the only collection of pre-reformation glass that has remained in situ in a domestic chapel anywhere in England.

Hengrave Hall Chapel Glass  Credit – Lawrence OP

In the dining room is a Jacobean symbolic painting over the fireplace that defies interpretation, bearing the legend ‘obsta principiis, post fumum flamma’ (‘Stand against the basic tenets, behind the smoke is a flame’).

See more  of Lawrence OP’s Hengrave Hall Pictures Here

Hengrave Hall from the air

The house was altered by the Gage family in 1775. The outer court and the east wing were demolished and the moat was filled in. Alterations on the front of the house were begun but never completed, and Sir John Wood attempted to restore the interior of the house to its original Tudor appearance in 1899. He rebuilt the east wing and re-panelled most of the house in oak.

One room, the Oriel Chamber, retains its original seventeenth century paneling, in which is embedded a portrait of James II painted by William Wissing in 1675. It is thought that some of the original paneling found its way to the Gage’s townhouse in Bury St. Edmunds, now the Farmers’ Club in Northgate Street.

The ornate windows and mouldings at the front of the building feature on the coverpiece on the Suffolk edition of Pevsner’s Buildings of England.

Hengrave Hall appears on the cover of Pevsner’s Buildings of England – Suffolk

When Sir Thomas Kytson died in 1540, he left Hengrave and all his other property to his wife, Dame Margaret (née Donnington). With her he had a posthumous son, afterwards Sir Thomas Kytson, and four daughters, Katherine, Dorothy, Anne, and Frances. Just two months after her first husband’s death, she married secondly, Sir Richard Long (c.1494-1546) of Shengay (Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII). The marriage settlement of Dame Margaret and her third husband, the 2nd Earl of Bath, in 1548, gave her complete control over the extensive personal property she brought into their marriage, including the right to devise it by will should she predecease him.

Hengrave eventually passed down the female Kytson line, and on the death of Elizabeth Kytson in 1625 the house was inherited by her daughter Mary Kytson, who had married Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers. By her granddaughter Penelope Darcy’s marriage to Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet, the house passed into the Gage family.

Hengrave Hall is now available for wedding parties

Children

1. Henry Payne

Genealogies show Henry’s parents marrying about 1530 and Henry being born shortly thereafter, but I think he must have been born much earlier.

In 1546, Payne purchased of the Crown and received a grant in fee of the Manor of Nowton, the advowson of the church and the hereditaments in Nowton belonging to the dissolved monastery of St. Edmund, one of the most celebrated monasteries in the Kingdom. Not the sort of purchase a 16 year old could make.

When Sir Thomas Kytson died 11 Sep 1540, aged 55 years, Henry recorded Sir Thomas’ noncupative will [odd that such a rich man wouldn't write a will, I wonder what was that back story] Henry Payne, in the presence of the deponents, asked him, then lying in his bed, if he had any will made; to whom he answered, “No“; and that then the said Payne, speaking again, said “for ye have told me in times past that my lady your wife should have this manor of Hengrave“; and that the said Sir Thomas Kytson answered and said, “Yea, marry shall she“; and that then the said Payne, speaking again, said “And Felton’s too?“- “Yea, answered Sir Thomas Kytson, “and Felton’s too” I assume Henry must have been at least 25 years old to have this responsible position, putting his birth to before 1515. Henry remembered his brothers and sisters generously in his will so he was certainly part of the family.

Henry came to reside in Bury St. Edmunds, in the County of Suffolk. He was bailiff of the Manor of Hengrave.     After the fall and consequent death of Buckingham (see above), and the consequent dismissal of Payne’ s father as bailiff, the Duke’s successor, Sir Thomas Kytson, appointed his son Henry, to the same office of bailiff of the Manor.

Henry was a lawyer by profession, a member of Lincoln’s Inn, Esquire.  The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar.  During the 12th and 13th century, the law was taught in the City of London primarily by the clergy. During the 13th century, two events happened which destroyed this form of legal education: first, a decree by Henry III of England on Dec 2 1234 that no institutes of legal education could exist in the City of London, and, second, a papal bull that prohibited the clergy from teaching the common law, rather than canon law. As a result the system of legal education fell apart. The common lawyers migrated to the hamlet of Holborn, the nearest place to the law courts at Westminster Hall that was outside the City.

The Gatehouse of Lincoln’s Inn is the only structure that survives basically unaltered today from the time Henry had quarters there

Henry was counsel for the Earl and Countess of Bath, Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath, PC and his wife Margaret, who had previously been married to Sir Thomas Kytson.  The Kytsons and Bourchiers were all ”recusants” who refused to attend Church of England services and remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church.

Henry was also personal friends with the Earl and Countess.  The  Earl on his death bequeathed to him for a remembrance a gold ring of the value of 40s. and the Countess styling him ” her loving friend,” directed by her will, that he should be associated with her executors and gave him a legacy of £20.

Tomb of Countess of Bath Hengrave Hall

Henry Payne’s Properties

Henry amassed a lot of property during his life, and since he never married he bequeathed numerous estates to his brothers and nephews.  Much of Henry’s property came from purchases made during Henry VII’s  Dissolution of the Monasteries.

During his life it was that Henry VIII dissolved so large a part of the Catholic monasteries of England, and seized upon their effects, converting them to his own use and purposes. In the 37th year of that Kings reign,  1546, Payne purchased of the Crown and received a grant in fee of the Manor of Nowton, the advowson of the church and the hereditaments in Nowton belonging to the dissolved monastery of St. Edmund, one of the most celebrated monasteries in the Kingdom.

The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England. Its ruins lie in Bury St Edmunds,

Ruins of Abbey of St Edmunds

The Abbey’s charters granted extensive lands and rights in Suffolk. By 1327, the Abbey owned all of West Suffolk. The Abbey held the gates of Bury St Edmunds; they held wardships of all orphans, whose income went to the Abbot until the orphan reached maturity; they pressed their rights of corvée.  The monks charged tariffs on every economic activity, including the collecting of horse droppings in the streets. The Abbey even ran the Royal Mint.

Throughout 1327, the monastery suffered extensively, as several monks lost their lives in riots, and many buildings were destroyed. The townspeople attacked in January, forcing a charter of liberties on them. When the monks reneged on this they attacked again in February and May. The hated charters and debtors’ accounts were seized and triumphantly torn to shreds. On October 18, 1327, a group of monks entered the local parish church. They threw off their habits, they were armoured underneath, and took several hostages. The people called for the hostages’ release, the monks fired on them, killing some. In response, the citizens swore to fight the abbey to the death. They included a parson and 28 chaplains. They burnt the gates and captured the abbey.

Abbeygate In Bury St Edmunds Rebuilt in the 14th C after the townspeople’s revolt of 1327 destroyed the previous gates

Henry also purchased the Grange in Thorpe Riggnoll in the County of York, parcel of the lands of the Priori of Worksop, Nottinghamshire.   For the grants he paid to the Crown, as consideration, the sum of £647 18s. 1d . The sale of the Manor was made subject to a lease then existing in favor of William Sterne for twenty years for the yearly rent of .£25 13s. 9d.

By this purchase Paine became Lord of the Manor of Nowton, a right or dignity which followed the law or inheritance.

Sir Thomas Kytson (1485 – 1540)

After the fall and consequent death of Buckingham (see above), and the consequent dismissal of Payne’ s father as bailiff, the Duke’s successor, Sir Thomas Kytson, appointed his son Henry, to the same office of bailiff of the Manor.

Sir Thomas Kyston was born in 1485 in Warton, Lancashire.  His father was  Robert Kytson.  The name of his first wife is not known and he had one daughter Elizabeth Kytson. wife of Edmund Crofts of Westowe, Suffolk. He second married Margaret Donnington.  Thomas died 11 Sep 1540, Hengrave, Suffolk, Englan

Margaret Donnington (Countess of  Bath) (b. ~1509, Stoke Newington, London, England  -  d. 12 Jan 1561 – bur. Hengrave Church)  Her parents were John Donnington and Elizabeth Pye; m2. 1541   Sir Richard Long (1494-1546) -  Politician and courtier, for many years a member of the privy chamber of Henry VIII.  They had one son, Henry, to whom the King stood as godfather in 1544;  m3.  ~1547 to  John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath

This painting of Sir Thomas Kytson by Hans Holbein hung in the Great Chamber of Hengrove Hall

Children of Sir Thomas and Margaret:  (notice that Margaret and Frances married father and son)

2. Catherine Kytson   m. Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton, Warwickshire

3.Frances  Kytson m. John Bourchier, 5th Baron FitzWarin, eldest son of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath;

4. Anne Kytson  m. Sir William Spring of Pakenham, Suffolk.

5. Dorothy Kytson  m.  Sir Thomas Packington of Westwood, Worcestershire;

6. Sir Thomas Kytson (Younger) (born posthumously, hence not in his father’s will)

Sir Thomas Kytson, the Younger (1573), son of Sir Thomas by George Gower.

Sir Thomas came to London in his youth, and was apprenticed to Richard Glayser, mercer, and on the expiration of his indenture was admitted a freeman of the Mercers’ Company in 1507. He twice served the office of warden of the company, in 1526 and 1534, and held the office of master in 1534.

Sir Thomas Kytson was Master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1534

The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies.   The Company’s aim was to act as a trade association for general merchants, and especially for exporters of wool and importers of velvet, silk and other luxurious fabrics. By the 16th century many members of the Company had lost any connection with the original trade. Today, the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes.

In 1521 Kytson purchased of the Duke of Buckingham the manor of Hengrave, Suffolk, and the manor of Colston Basset in Nottinghamshire for £ 2,340 , the estates being valued at £ 115  yearly. On the attainder and execution of the Duke of Buckingham in the following year, Kytson was for a time deprived of the estates, but they were ultimately restored to him, and were confirmed to him by an act of Parliament of 1524, which describes him as a ‘citizen and mercer of London, otherwise called Kytson the merchant’.

In the valuation of the lands and goods of the inhabitants of London, taken in 1522, Kytson was assessed in goods at a thousand marks (altered to four thousand marks), and in lands at six hundred marks. In the following year he appears indebted to the Crown for £600, and at the time his financial dealings with the crown were on a large scale.

His mercantile transactions were very extensive. He was a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers, and traded at the cloth fairs or staples held by that company at Antwerp, Middelburg, and other places in Flanders. Like many other wealthy London merchants, he appears to have had a house and staff of servants’ at Antwerp.

Under Henry VII‘s charter of 1505, the company had a governor and 24 assistants. The members were trading capitalists. They were probably mostly composed of London mercers.

Foreign merchants of the Hanseatic League had considerable privileges in England trade and competed with the Merchant Adventurers. These privileges were revoked by the English government in the mid-16th century.

The Merchant Adventurers had a commercial monopoly. Its members were the only persons entitled to export cloth from England. Their main market (or staple port) was Antwerp. When the King of Spain as sovereign of the Low Countries increased customs duty in 1560, the merchants began to have difficulty in Antwerp. This rise in duty conflicted with the treaty with Brabant of 1496. Three years later, the King of Spain prohibited English ships from coming to the Low Countries.

The Merchant Adventurers then decided to use other ports. Emden in East Friesland and Hamburg competed to entertain the Merchant Adventurers of England, who chose Emden. They soon found, however, that the port failed to attract sufficient merchants to buy the English merchants’ wares. They left abruptly and returned to Antwerp. Operations there were interrupted by Elizabeth I’s seizing Spanish treasure ships, which were conveying money to the Duke of Alva, governor of the Netherlands. although trade was resumed at Antwerp from 1573 to 1582, it ceased with the declining fortunes of that city.

Under the charter of 1564, the company’s court consisted of a governor (elected annually was by members beyond the seas), his deputies, and 24 Assistants. Admission was by patrimony (being the son of a merchant, free of the company at the son’s birth), service (apprenticeship to a member), redemption (purchase) or ‘free gift’. By the time of the accession of James I in 1603, there were at least 200 members. Fees for admission were then gradually increased.

Kytson served the office of sheriff of London in 1533, and on 30 May in that year was knighted, an honor which was not conferred upon his co-sheriff, William Foreman. In May 1534 he was associated with Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in receiving oaths of fealty from priests and monks.  Kytson was assessed for the subsidy of 1535 at four thousand marks.

Subsequently he purchased several other manors in Suffolk of the crown of the yearly value of £202, 4s, 7d., for which he paid £3,710 1s. 8d. From an inventory of his effects taken after his death, it appears that his warehouses in London were stored with cloth of gold, satins, tapestry, velvets, furs, fustians, bags of pepper, cloves, madder, &c., to the value of £1,181 15s. 1d., and the ready money and debts (goods, doubtful, and desperate) amounted to a very considerable sum. He had a dwelling-house on Milk Street (with a chapel attached), the ‘implements’ in which were valued at £154. 8s. 3 1/2d.; a garden in Coleman Street, and a house and chapel at Stoke Newington. Besides Hengrave, he had houses at Westley and Risby in Suffolk, and at Torbrian in Devonshire.

Sir Thomas Kytson died 11 Sep 1540, aged 55 years. Upon the 21st of the same month allegations were taken to prove his noncupative will [odd that such a rich man wouldn't write a will, I wonder what was the back story].  John Crofts, of Westowes, Esq.; Edmund Crofts, on Lincoln’s Inn, Gent., and others, deposed, that on Saturday, the 11 Sep, Sir Thomas Kytson being sick, and lying within his manor of Hengrave, about 8 o’clock of the night, Henry Payne, in the presence of the deponents, asked him, then lying in his bed, if he had any will made; to whom he answered, “No“; and that then the said Payne, speaking again, said “for ye have told me in times past that my lady your wife should have this manor of Hengrave“; and that the said Sir Thomas Kytson answered and said, “Yea, marry shall she“; and that then the said Payne, speaking again, said “And Felton’s too?“- “Yea, answered Sir Thomas Kytson, “and Felton’s too“; that the substance of this conversation was immediately set down in writing, in the form of a will, by Henry Payne, at the request of Sir Thomas Kytson, in his presence and in that of the deponents; and that Sir Thomas Kytson lived four hours after this conversation.

Margaret, countess of Bath (Sir Thomas Kytson’s widow), and her three husbands in Hengrave Church

Kytson was buried with much state in Hengrave Church. In the north-east angle of the chapel is a well-executed tomb to the memory of Margaret, countess of Bath (his widow), and her three husbands. A recumbent figure of Kytson in armour is placed on the step in front of the tomb, the frieze of which contains an inscription to his memory. On 22 Sep 1540 allegations were taken to prove his nuncupative will, by which he left his manors of Hengrave and Feltons and all his other property to his wife, Dame Margaret. The will is dated 11 Sep 1540.

In 1589, the parish of Hengrave was suppressed. Why? Why was this church closed? What happened here for it to be given up? It is very simple. The Kytsons and the Gages were militantly recusant families. They maintained their Catholic faith and identity throughout the penal period. And they were powerful enough to face off the legal penalties that came with such a position. This is less rare in the north-west, for instance, but quite an unusual position in East Anglia.

The son of the Sir Thomas who built the hall was powerful enough to have entertained Queen Elizabeth in 1578, despite his Catholic faith. It is said that she tried to argue him into protestantism; in return, he presented her with a beautiful jewel. No wonder, then, that it was easier to hive off Hengrave church from the diocese of Norwich, than to tolerate the recusant priests that Sir Thomas, as patron of the living, would no doubt impose on them!

The will of Margaret Donnington, named members of the Spring family and Henry Payne. And she appointed her trusty and well-beloved son-in-law, Sir John Spencer and Sir Thomas Pakington, her son Thomas Kytson, and her son-in-law William Barnaby, executors of her will, and to be associated with them her loving friend Henry Payne; to each of whom she gave twenty pounds.

The wardship of her son, Sir Thomas Kytson, belonged to the King and was granted by the Crown first to Lord Chancellor Rich and afterward to the Countess of Bath.

Earl and Countess of Bath

 Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath, PC (1499, Devon – 10 February 1560/61)

His parents were John Bourchier (1º E. Bath) and Cecily Daubeney.   He married three times, first to Elizabeth Hungerford,, second (before 25 May 1524) to Eleanor Manners, daughter of Anne St. Leger and George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, and upon her death, married (about 4 Dec 1548) Margaret Donnington, widow of Sirr Thomas Kytson.  His heir was John Bourchier, 5th Baron FitzWarin, born 1529, who married Margaret’s daughter from her first marriage, Lady Frances Kytson. Their son William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath, was born the same year his father died, 1557. Upon the death of his father, young William became the heir to his grandfather’s Earldom.

Sir John was appointed High Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1519 and knighted in 1523. Henry VIII, in 1539, the former monastic manors of Hackpen, Sheldon, Bolham and Saint Hill to the 2nd Earl, who had already inherited the Dynhams line’s Okehampton Barony from his grandmother, Elizabeth Dynham.   The second Earl lived somewhat dangerously, he owed the King £336.

He succeeded to the title of 2nd Earl of Bath on 30 Apr 1539. He succeeded to the title of Baron of Daubeney on 8 Apr 1548.

Upon the death of Edward VI, he was one of the first to declare Lady Mary Tudor rightful queen. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (PC) in 1553, and served as a Commissioner to decide on the claims made at the coronation of Mary I.   Bourchier was also a commissioner on the trial of Lady Jane Grey in 1554.

Other offices held in Sir John’s lifetime included: Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall in 1556,  Lord-Lieutenant of Devon in 1556, Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset and Governor of Beaumaris Castle.

Sir John Bourchier died Feb  10, 1560/61 and was buried March 10, at Hengrave.

Sir John Bourchier’s first  cousin, Anne Stanhope was the daughter of the 1st Earl of Baths sister, Elizabeth. Upon her marriage to Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, she became the sister-in-law to Queen Jane Seymour and the Aunt of King Edward VI. After the death of Henry VIII, his widow, Catherine Parr, married Thomas Seymour. This made Anne the sister-in-law to two English queens

Some have speculated that Mary I stopped briefly at Hengrave on her way to Framlingham Castle in 1553, but there is no evidence for this other than that John Bourchier, Earl of Bath, who had married Sir Thomas Kytson’s widow Margaret, was a loyal supporter of the Queen. (However the Queen’s father Henry VIII was godfather to Margaret’s son Henry Long from her 2nd marriage, so it is not entirely improbable).

Elizabeth I stayed at Hengrave from 27–30 Aug 1578 and a chamber is named in her honor.  The madrigalist John Wilbye was employed by the Kytsons at Hengrave and in Colchester from around 1594 until his death in 1638, as was the composer Edward Johnson. During the Stour Valley anti-popery riots of 1642, Sir William Spring, Penelope Darcy’s cousin, was ordered by Parliament to search the house, where it was thought arms for a Catholic insurrection were being stored.  The Jesuit William Wright was arrested at Hengrave Hall.

Back to Henry Payne

Henry Payne died July 25, 1568, and was buried the next day in the Parish church of Nowton. He left a will, made a few days before his death giving his estate, most of it, to charitable purposes. To three score poor householders in each of the Parishes of St. Mary and St. James [now St Edmundsbury Cathedral] in Bury St. Edmunds, he gave three score bushels of rye, that they and their families might pray for him ; and to the poor prisoners in the gaol [jail] two bushels of rye to be baked for them, together with as much meat as ten shillings would purchase, and 6s. 8d. in money and an annual allowance of wood for 20 years; He gave 54s.  to maintain the monument, etc., of St Mary’s church, 20s. to repair it, small sums to the poor men’s boxes of Nowton and other churches,

St Mary’s Church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

The present church of St Mary’s in Bury St. Edmonds is the second building to stand on the site, the first being built in the 12th century by Mr Hervey. However, nothing survives of the Norman church and the oldest part of the existing building is the decorated chancel (c. 1290).

There was a major renovation between the 14th and 16th centuries and it is at this point that the nave, its aisles and the tower were built. It is also at this time that Mary Tudor, favorite sister of Henry VIII, died and was buried in the church. Her tomb is in the sanctuary directly in front of the high altar. The church, however, is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus, and not, as some believe, to Mary Tudor.

During the 16th century, John Notyngham and Jankyn Smyth, two wealthy benefactors to the church, died and left generous amounts of money to the church. These funds contributed to building the north and south quire aisles, now the Lady Chapel and Suffolk Regimental chapel, two chantry chapels and a north and south porch. I wonder if they were Henry’s friends.

Henry gave  one friend the Countess of Bath’s cup, to another his Chaucer “written in vellum and illumined in gold,” to another “a standing cup with cover all gilt that was part of the Countess of Bath’s plate ” and also ” a cloth of fine work that hung over the cupboard in his room with the story of Noe and the Creation of the World,” also various gifts to his brothers and sisters and their children.

• To Walter, son of his late brother John Payne, he gave his homestead on College street, St. Edmunds Bury, with the College Hall adjoining and 300 marks and furniture, etc.
• To William James, the 2d husband of his brother John’s widow, 40s. and
• To his brother Edward, his household effects, tiles and bricks made at his Manor of the Clees in Essex.
• The Manor of Nowton he settled on his brother Anthony. Other lands he gave to his brother Anthony for life, with remainder over to Anthony’s sons John, Thomas and William successively in tail male. [In common law, fee tail  is an estate of inheritance in real property which cannot be sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the owner, but which passes by operation of law to the owner's heirs upon his death.  In  "fee tail male", only sons could inherit.]
• Besides other devises he gave to his brother Nicholas and William his son, the Manor of Netherhall in Soham, Cambridgeshire on pay’ of £100 to his Executors.

His will was proved Feb 2, 1569. He was never married or at least left no widow, or children. The records compiled by the author of the ” Visitation ” show ” Mr. Henry Paine, Esq., Lord and Patron of Nowton buried July 26, 1568.”

Will of Henry Payne 14 Jun 1568 - The Visitation of Suffolke

Sir William Drury

Henry was close friends with Sir William Drury (1527 – 1579) (wiki) an English statesman and soldier.   John Gage’s The history and antiquities of Suffolk: Thingoe hundred says he was Sir William’s sister Mary’s godfather. However, I can’t find that Sir William had any sister of that name.

Sir William  was a son of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, and grandson of another Sir Robert Drury (died 1536), who was speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. He was a brother of Dru Drury.

He was born at Hawstead in Suffolk, and was educated at Gonville College, Cambridge. Fighting in France, Drury was taken prisoner in 1544; then after his release, he helped Lord Russell, afterwards Earl of Bedford, to quell a rising in Devonshire in 1549, but he did not come to the front until the reign of Elizabeth.

In 1554 he sat as Member of Parliament for Chipping Wycombe. In 1559, he was sent to Edinburgh to report on the condition of Scottish politics, and five years later he became Marshal and deputy-governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was a close observer of the affairs of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her house-arrest in Loch Leven Castle, and was in constant communication with Lord Burghley and wrote to him on 3 April 1568 regarding her escape from that place on 25 March about which he gave a full account. Again in Scotland in January 1570, it is interesting to note that the regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was proceeding to keep an appointment with Drury in Linlithgow when he was mortally wounded, and it was probably intended to murder the English envoy also.

After this event, Drury led two raids into Scotland; at least thrice he went to that country on more peaceable errands, during which, however, his life was continually in danger from assassins; and he commanded the force which compelled Edinburgh Castle to surrender in May 1573. In 1576, he was sent to Ireland as President of Munster, where his rule was severe but effective, and in 1578 he became Lord Justice to the Irish Council, taking the chief control of affairs after the departure of Sir Henry Sidney. The Second Desmond Rebellion had just broken out when Sir William died in October 1579.

Drury’s letters to Cecil, and others, are invaluable for the story of the relations between England and Scotland at this time.

Children of Sir Robert Drury  and Elizabeth Brudenell (Notice  that there is no one named Mary who Gage says was the goddaughter of Henry Payne)

i. Sir Robert Drury, heir,  and  Anne Bourman

ii. Sir William, Lord Justice Governor of Ireland d, 1579, m. Margaret, daughter of Thomas, Lord Wentworth. (Henry Payne’s friend)

iii. Sir Drue of Lynsted, Usher of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth and a keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1518; d. 1617), m1. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Phillip Calthorpe and Amata Boleyn (aunt of Queen Anne Boleyn), m2. Catherine, daughter of William Finch of Lynsted (d.1601).

iv. Anne m. 1557 Robert Woodliffe (1507 -1593) The widowed Anne Woodliff and her son Drew were taken to court by Ingram Frizer, the possible murderer of Christopher Marlowe, who had defrauded Drew of a great deal of money. Frizer offered cannon which he had on Tower Hill as payment, but he did not deliver.

v. Margaret, m. Henry Trenchard

vi. Lucy, m. Robert Tesh

vii. Elizabeth, m. Rowland Hind

Henry wrote in his will  that he noticed that he had purchased of Sir Wm. Drury certain parcels of land in Nowton and Hawsted, he directed that Wm. Drury, Esq., son of Robert & grandson of Sir Wm., should have the option of purchasing or redeeming the same for 9 score & ten pounds [£190], but as they were convenient to be held with the Testator’s manor of Nowton, in order to induce the s^d Wm. Drury to give up the repurchase, the testator bequeathed to him a nest of bowls double gilt, with a cover with the arms graven thereon of the Earl of Oxenford [Earl of Oxford] & his lady, & the testator’s best silver basin & ewer, with the arms of Peyton thereon, & 3 cushions of velvet for the furnishing of his house at Hawsted; and if he should repurchase, the testator revoked the s^d bequests. giving him in such case for his good will toward the children of his brother Anthony, a gold ring and a fair turquois.  And he devised the same lands, if Wm. Drury declined the purchase to his brother Anthony for live, rem^r successively to his sons John, Thos. and Wm. Payne in tail male.

And he gave to his god-daughter Mary Drury, sister of Sir Wm. Drury, 5 marks, and to lady Corbett, his dapple grey gelding, which he had bought of Mark, the Physician, and also a little trencher salt of silver, with a cover all gilt, and his casting bottle of silver parcel gilt for rose-water, as a remembrance, desiring her to pray for him,  And among other dispositions, the testator devised to his brother Nicholas Payne and Wm. his son, the manor of Netherhall, in Soham, in Cambridgeshire on their payment to his Executors of £100.  And he gave to his late servant John Orras, and the before mentioned Wm. Cooke, all the furniture of the testator’s chambers in Lincoln’s Inn.

Proved (cur. proerog. Cant.) 2 Feb 1568/69

3. Nicholas Payne

Nicholas’ wife  Anne Bowles was of Baldock, Hertfordshire, 50 miles southwest of Hengrave

Nicholas resided at Hengrave, County of Suffolk, June 14, 1568. He was devisee under his brother Henry’s will, of the Manor of Netherall Tindalls, in Soham, Cambridge. Nicholas and Anne had 5 children

Netherhall Manor – Tanners Lane, Soham, Ely, England

The origins of Netherhall Manor are uncertain.  Robert Bright of London, son of Thomas the elder, purchased the manor in 1601.   Page’s History of Suffolk states that the Ashfield family built the manor house and were seated at Netherhall during the reign of Henry VII, but later research reveals the Ashfields had another manor of the same name in Eastern Suffolk.Magna Britannia 1808 says – Netherhall-Tindales has in the last two centuries been successfully in the families of Barnes,  Foulkes, Hanmer, and Hervey.  In 1805 it was purchased of the Hurveys by the present propriater Mr. Robert Pigott.Magna Britania also names a manor Netherhall-Wygorne in Soham.

Click here for Google Maps Satellite View

Today, the garden of Netherhall Manor contains one of the most comprehensive collections of old English plants.  Visitors are welcome by appointment from March to August. Refreshments (home made tea and cakes) by prior arrangement.

Netherhall Garden

One-acre walled garden filled with old-fashioned flowers. Tours by the expert owner and garden writer. ‘Elegant with a touch of antiquity… a positive delight’ Good Gardens Guide. Tour concludes with eighteenth century music played on family square piano.April: Tudor primroses, old varieties of hyacinths, daffodils, crown imperials; May: Old-English florists’ tulips; August: Victorian gold and silver tri-coloured pelargoniums, heliotrope, calceolaria and pompom dahlias..

Children of Nicholas and Anne:

i. William Paine, resided at Worlington, Suffolk Co., gentleman, devisee in remainder of the Manor of Netherall Tindalls in Soham, under his uncle Henry’s will, married Elizabeth Chenery, Nov. 8, 1585. His will dated July 26, 1614, proved July 16, 1617, her will dated March 21, 1628, proved May 29th, 1630.

Will of William and Elizabeth Payne — The Visitation of Suffolke

William and Elizabeth  had 5 children as follows:

- William, died in 1617.

- Henry, married Ann Alston.

Will of Henry Payne — The Visitation of Suffolke

-  Elizabeth, married Francis Dister.

Will of Francis Dister — The Visitation of Suffolke

- Mary, married Thomas Biggs.

- Ann, married Thomas Gest.

ii.  Thomas Paine

iii. Mary Paine, m..Robert Bridgham.

iv.  Dorothy Paine, m. Thomas Nichols.

v.  Ann Paine, m. John Howard.

4. Edward Payne

Edward was living June 14, 1568, and married. He received the Manor of Clees in Alphanstone, Essex, from  his brother Henry.

Arial view of Clees Hall   A = Granary Approximately East South East of Clees Hall; B = Wall Approximately 20 Metres South East of Clees Hall; C = Barn Approximately 55 Metres South East of Clees Hall, Alphamstone

Clees Hall is two miles south of Alphamstone.

Manorial records of Clees Hall are available at Essex Archives Online,

The story below from The history and topography of  the County of Essex By Thomas Wright 1836 isn’t quite right.  Edward Payne received Clees Manor as a gift from his brother Henry.  Also, I think the Clees Manor house is two miles south of Alphamstone and the parish church.

The most recent mention of Clees Hall I can find is White’s Directory of Essex 1848

ALPHAMSTONE, a small village on an eminence overlooking the vale of the Stour, 5 miles North East by East of Halstead, has in its parish 341 souls, and 1531A. of land. It has a fair, for pleasure and pedlery, on the 1st Thursday in June. Sir R. T. D. Neave, Bart., is lord of the manor, and owner of Clees Hall, a neat mansion occupied by E. Kemp Esq.; but Boxted Hall belongs to Jno. Start, Esq.; and Mrs. E Kemp, the Rev. R. B. Harvey, and several smaller owners, have estates here.

St Barnabas Church, Alphamstone

The Church [St Barnabas] is a small ancient structure, of flint, with a tower, short spire, and three bells. The Rectory, valued in K.B. at £11, and in 1831 at £407, is in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. Hy. Hodges, M.A., who has 28A of glebe, and a neat residence, in the Elizabethan style, built about eight years ago. The tithes were commuted in 1848, for £440 per annum.

For distribution at Christmas, the poor parishioners have the rents of two cottages and 2½A. of land, given by Thos. Clayton, in 1560, and now let for £8.8s. per annum. They have also 20s. yearly out of Twinstead Hall estate, pursuant of the bequest of Isaac Wincoll, who, in 1681, also charged the same estate with the payment of £1 each to the four parishes of Twinstead, Great Henny, Pebmarsh, and Lamarsh, for the poor.

Three outbuildings are Grade II British listed buildings, but not Clees Manor itself.

A =  Granary Approximately East South East of Clees Hall. Mid C18. N and S walls of red brick in Flemish bond, E and W walls timber framed and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Gambrel roof half-hipped at both ends. 2 storeys. External ladder access at W end. Hanging knees to beams. Lodged side purlin roof with intermediate collars. Moated site.

B = Wall Approximately 20 Metres South East of Clees Hall Grade: II English Heritage Building ID: 114793   Early C16. Red brick, lime mortar, mainly of header bond on W side with some courses of stretcher bond. Approx. 5 metres long, 2 metres high, 0.33 metre thick, thicker at base. Now forms the W side of a C20 ancillary building, originally part of or associated with the former Clees Hall. Moated site.

C = Barn Approximately 55 Metres South East of Clees Hall  Barn. Late C15/early C16. Timber framed, thatched roof with valleys of handmade red clay tiles, aisle roofed with corrugated iron. 6 bays aligned E-W with C17 midstrey to S of W bay. Reported by RCHM to have been then of 10 bays and 120 feet long, the 4 western bays later removed, reportedly to North America.

Originally without aisles, aisle added to N in C18. Jowled posts, heavy studding and girts in E and S walls, edge-halved and bridled scarfs in wallplates, queen post roof. One pair of arched braces to tiebeam present, others replaced by hanging knees in C17/C18. Some wattle and daub present in S wall. E bay bricked and floored in C20. Moated site. RCHM

Several busineses currently have an address of Clees Hall, Alphamstone, Bures, Suffolk.  It looks like the manor house has been turned into offices

• Sothcott Cybernetics,  Unit 3
• Barrie Clarke Joinery – Joiner, Unit 6
• Starta Electronics Ltd
• Anderson Quantrend Ltd 

Clees Hall Drawing —  Courtesy Tracy Gwinn

He had two sons.  Children of Edward and [__?__]

i. Henry Paine had the manor of Worlington settled upon him by his uncle Henry (See above).

Worlington Hall

Worlington Hall is an elegant 16th century former Manor House set in five acres of gardens with protected trees and fishing rights on the River Lark. The original house was built in 1570 and the Queen Anne facade was added in the early 18th century.  Today it is a distinguished Country House Hotel recently restored to reflect its original elegance.

Henry was married and had two children :

- Henry, married Susan Beriffs, and died Jan 22, 1606.

- Thomas. No issue. He was living Jun 14, 1568.

ii. Thomas Paine, j & J T J

5. Anthony PAYNE (See his page)

Henry settled the Manor of Nowton on his brother Anthony.

6. Thomas Payne

Thomas’ wife Katherine Harasant de Cransford was born 1564 in Wrentham, Suffolk, England. She was the daughter of Thomas Harasant de Cransford. Katherine died 18 May 1620 in Wrentham.

Children of Thomas and Katherine:

i. Henri Paine b. 31 Jul 1579 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; d. 26 Sep 1579

ii. John Payne b. 27 Oct 1580 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; m. Mary Harden
‘
iii. Marie Payne b. 25 Mar 1583 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; d. 1583.

iv. Robarte Payne b. 7 Jun 1584 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; d. 25 Oct 1618 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; m1. 13 Jul 1615 in Chapel St Mary, Suffolk, England to Mary Chichely; m2. 29 Apr 1622 in Dunwich St Pete, Suffolk, England to Margaret Bommett; m3. 10 Sep 1628 in Chapel St Mary, Suffolk to Marie Haw

v. Thomas Payne b. 11 Dec 1586 Wrentham, Suffolk, England; d. 01 Mar 1639 in Salem, Mass; m. Elizabeth Bloomfield ( b ~ 1584 in England – d. 15 Sep 1658 in Southold, Suffolk, New York) Thomas and Elizabeth had eight children born between 1611 and 1626.

When he immigrated, Thomas left a mill in Suffolk in the hands of his “kinsman Henery  Blomfield.”  Blomfield may have been the brother of his wife or Blomfield’s wife may have been her sister.

Alternatively, he married Elizabeth Tuthill (b. 1584 in Tharston, Norfolk, England – d. 1657 in Salem, Essex, Mass,) Her parents were John Tuthill Jr. (1548 – 1618) and Elizabeth Woolmer (1567 – 1587) or Margaret Pultney (b. 1582)

Thomas Payne purchased the vessel  Mary Anne and immigrated  from  Yarmouth, arriving in Boston August 21, 1637. Thomas Paine was received into the town of Salem, Massachusetts; at the age of 51.   68 Puritans made the trip including several other relatives.  See my post Passages for details.

Thomas was listed as a weaver who had come from Wrentham, Suffolk County, England. He married Elizabeth [__?__] on Nov 22, 1610.

Descendants of Thomas Payne

7. John Payne

The name of John’s wife is not known.   After John died, she married William James.

John died previous to June 14, 1568, leaving Walter Paine, gentleman, son and heir and also heir at law to his uncle Henry, he being then more than 21 years of age

Child of John and [__?__]

i.  Walter Paine,, gentleman, son and heir, had two children as already noted : Mary, bap. 9 Jun 1577 and  John, bap. 12 Dec 1579.

In his uncle Henry’s will, Walter  received Henry’s homestead on College street, St. Edmunds Bury, with the College Hall adjoining and 300 marks and furniture, etc.

College Street Bury St Edmunds – Google Street View – Could some of these buildings be Tudor buildings  from Henry and Walter Payne’s era?

8. Agatha Payne

According to the Suffolk visitation, Agatha’s husband John Pratt was from Dutton, Cambridgeshire. I can’t find Dutton, perhaps what was meant was Sutton, a civil parish in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England.

Child of Agatha and John:

i. Henry Pratt b. 1570 in Waterford, Hertfordshire, England; d. 1593 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

9. Elizabeth Payne

According to the 1561 Suffolk visitation, Elizabeth’s husband Oliver Sparrow (Olyver Sparrow) was from Chedbar, Suffolk. I’m still looking for the modern equivalent, perhaps it’s Chedburgh, a village and civil parish around five miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds,

10. Agnes Payne

According to the Suffolk visitation, Agnes’ husband Henry Gaytwarde was from Spynney, Essex. I haven’t found the modern equivalent, perhaps The Spinney, Queens Park, Basildon, Essex

11. Anna Payne

Anna’s husband John Cokefote was from Badwater, Essex, probably Great Baddow, an urban village in the Chelmsford borough of Essex, England. It is close to the county town, Chelmsford and, with a population of over 13,000, is one of the largest villages in the country. Great Baddow (Baddow meaning ‘bad water’) was named after the River Baddow (now known as the River Chelmer

Sources:

The_History_and_Antiquities_of_Hengrave.pdf By John Gage 1838

http://www.hengravehall.co.uk/home

The Visitation of Suffolke, Volume 2 By William Harvey, England.

The history and antiquities of Suffolk: Thingoe hundred By John Gage, John Gage Rokewode 1838

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasKytson(SirKnight).htm

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/RichardLong.htm

Pulteney or Poultney Family of Misterton, Leicestershire

Paine family records: a journal of genealogical and biographical information Volume 1
edited by Henry D. Paine 1880

THOMAS KYSTON/KITSON 1485-1540

St Edmundsbury Reformation and Civil War 1539-1699

Sir Robert Drury (b. Edgerly, Buckinghamshire-1589 [1575?])