Sir Peter Payne soi-disant Bart.

Sir Peter Payne (de jure bart.), father of Charles Gillies Payne (q.v.) to whom he ceded the compensation for Little Sir Gillies estate on St Kitts. His entry in the ODNB says: 'His grandfather Sir Charles (d. 1746) had inherited from his wife a large property in St Kitts, West Indies, and had been created a baronet on 31 October 1737.' It says of Sir Peter Payne that 'he was also a strong opponent of the slave trade' with no evidence adduced.

1. 3rd son of Sir Gillies Payne, second baronet of Tempsford, Bedfordshire. Sir Gillies Payne (d. 1801) delayed marriage with Peter's mother until 1761: Peter was the first legitimate child, but ceded the title to his elder brother John (who d. 1803) and never succeeded in definitively establishing his claim, although he was acknowledged as a baronet in his lifetime. Educated Hackney and Queens' College Cambridge (BA 1784, MA 1787). A 'strong Whig' and pamphleteer in 1810-12. Stood bail for Major John Cartwright when the latter was accused of sedition in August 1819.  MP for Bedfordshire 1831-32: see Political legacies. ODNB gives his birth year as 1763; other sources give 1762.

2. Owned Knuston Hall, Higham Ferrers, c. 1831 though for a short time only. The house lay empty for a number of years from c. 1834. The council website for Knuston Hall says: '1831: The Hall was occupied by Sir Peter Payne, who was a staunch opponent of the slave trade and an early advocate of higher education for women. Memorials to his family are still in evidence in the church of St. Catherine in Irchester.'

St Kitts No. 575; For an account of the Payne family's management of its estates see Christopher J. Cowton and Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy, ‘Absentee Control of Sugar Plantations in the British West Indies’, Accounting and Business Research, 22 (1991), pp . 33-45..

1. ODNB online, G. Le G. Norgate, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, 'Sir Peter Payne, de jure third baronet (1763-1843), radical'; D. R. Fisher (ed.), The House of Commons 1820-1832 (7 vols., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press for the History of Parliament Trust, 2009) , vol.6.

2. http://www.knustonhall.org.uk/history.jspx [accessed 03/02/2013 and 23/02/2017].