Ralph Payne 1st Baron Lavington

19th Mar 1739 - 3rd Aug 1807


Biography

Owner of Carlisle's estate in Antigua until his death in 1807. He was 'sole heir' of his grandmother Elizabeth Carlile nee Mackinnon, to whom William Carlile her son left (1742/3) his estate for her to pass to his nephew (and her grandson) Ralph Payne, 1st Baron Lavington. He was also earlier in his life owner of estates and enslaved people on both Nevis (which and whom he sold in 1772) and St Kitts, where he owned an estate in St John Capisterre that LBS has yet to identify with complete confidence but which appears to correspond to 'The Key of the late Lord Lavington' in William McMahon's 1828 map.

  1. Son of Ralph Payne (d. 1763) and Alice Carlisle. Born in St Kitts; MP for various constituencies, 1768-1799; Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1771-1775 and 1799-1807; "a West India grandee".

  2. Ralph Payne, Baron Lavington, has an entry in the ODNB as 'politician', which concludes: 'He died childless and almost destitute, and the legislature voted £300 per annum to his widow, who died at Hampton Court Palace on 2 May 1830. His career mirrored the meteoric rise and downfall of absentee sugar planters in Britain.' His half-brother John Willett Payne also has an entry as 'naval officer and royal official.'


Sources

T71/877 Antigua claim no. 353; Vere Langford Oliver History of Antigua Vol. I p. 113. In 1772, Ralph Payne agreed to sell two estates on Nevis on which his marriage settlement was secured for £37,000 to Andrew Hamilton, taking back a mortgage for the purchase price. He and his wife then applied to their trustees Viscount Stormont and Henry Wilmot to transfer the security for the annuity from the Nevis estates to Payne's estate in St John Capisterre on St Kitts with 182 enslaved people on it, and duly assigned the new estate and named enslaved people (already charged with an annuity of £500 p.a to Mary Magdalena Payne, widow of Stephen Payne (d. 1768)) to the trustees, Common Records 1773-1775, British Library, EAP794/1/1/14, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP794-1-1-14 pp. 100-121. LBS has inferred that one or both of the Nevis estates became Hamilton's; for the St Kitts estate in St John Capisterre, there is no obvious candidate in the 1753 Samuel Baker map but based on the description in the 1772 deed it appears to fit with 'The Key of the late Lord Lavington' in William McMahon's 1828 map.

  1. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/payne-sir-ralph-1739-1807 [accessed 09/09/2013].

  2. W. P. Courtney, ‘Payne, Ralph, Baron Lavington (1739–1807)’, rev. Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21652, accessed 30 Jan 2014]; Randolph Cock, ‘Payne, John Willett (1752–1803)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21648, accessed 30 Jan 2014]


Further Information

Absentee?
Transatlantic
Spouse
Frances Lambertina Christiana Charlotte Harriet Theresa Kolbel
Children
d.s.p.
Occupation
Politician

Associated Claims (1)

£5,168 19s 4d
Previous owner (not making a claim)

Associated Estates (3)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
- 1807 [EY] → Tenant-for-life
1772 [EA] - 1772 [LA] → Seller

David Lord Viscount Stormont' was party to an indenture of 11/08/1774 which recapitulated the marriage settlement of Sir Ralph Payne (q.v.) and Frances Kolbell 31/08/1767, of which Stormont and Henry Wilmot were trustees. Under the marriage settlement Frances nee Kolbell was to receive an annuity of £1000 p.a. after her husband's death, initially secured by the bond of Ralph Payne to the trustees for the penal sum of £40,000. In order to better secure the annuity, Payne conveyed his estates known as Walker or the Lower plantation or Wind Mill in St James in Figtree division on Nevis and De Witts (noted as having been purchased by Ralph Payne the father of Sir Ralph Payne), together with the enslaved people attached to them. Then in 1772 Payne agreed to sell the estates for £37,000 to Andrew Hamilton, taking back a mortgage for the purchase price. He and his wife therefore applied to Stormont and Wilmot to transfer the security for the annuity from the Nevis estates to Payne's estate in St John Capisterre on St Kitts with 182 enslaved people on it, and duly assigned the new estate and named enslaved people (already charged with an annuity of £500 p.a to Mary Magdalena Payne, widow of Stephen Payne (d. 1768)) to the trustees.

LBS has inferred Hamilton's to have evolved from one or both of the 1772 purchases on Nevis by Andrew Hamilton.

1772 [EA] - 1772 [LA] → Owner

Legacies Summary

Political (1)

MP
West India interest 
election →
Shaftesbury Wiltshire
1768 - 1771
election →
Camelford Cornwall
1776 - 1780
election →
Plympton Erle Devon
1780 - 1784

Relationships (6)

Half-brothers
Grandson → Grandmother
Deceased Husband → Widow
Half-brothers
Son → Father
Half-brothers