Contents |
William Payne (Paine) of Laveham was the son of William and Joane Payne, also of Lavenham, Suffolkshire, England. His birth was not recorded in either Boxted or Lavenham. The Lavenham parish registers do not start until 1558. The marriages of William and his siblings, Thomas and Agnes are all recorded in Lavenham in the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul. All of William's children were baptized in St. Peter and St. Paul in Lavenham. William died in 1621 and his wife Agnes (Ann) (Neves) Payne died in 1645, ten years after her son William and his family left England for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. William and Ann were buried in Lavenham and their deaths were recorded in the St. Peter and St. Paul church records. [1] [2]
William married Agnes (Ann) Neves in Lavenham in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on 28 December 1584. [3] William did not leave a will, but he was buried in the church yard of St. Peter and St. Paul on June 9, 1621. [3] Agnes (Ann) Payne wrote her will in 1635, it was not proved until April 1646. She left her property and goods to her daughter Susan and son Richard.[4]
Please do not confuse this William Payne with the William Payne, son of Anthony and Martha Castell, who was baptized in the church of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmunds on 2 Dec 1565. [5]
William Paine of Lavenham, husband of Agnes Neves and father of multiple immigrants to New England was not the son of William Payne of Bury St. Edmunds and Nowton. In 1881 and 1883, books were published on the ancestry of the Paine siblings who immigrated to Massachusetts. The authors of these books believed that they had found the ancestors in the Paynes of Nowton. In a 1915 article published in the Register, the Paine family was proved to be from Lavenham, their births, marriages and deaths were recorded in the Parish registers of St. Peter and St. Paul in Lavenham. They were a distinct family from the Bury Paynes. Despite this information being available since 1915 the incorrect ancestry has been perpetuated. [1]
Roberts blog article gives a nice explanation of these two families. [6]
In 1634 court case, Richard Paine of Lavenham, son of William and Agnes, was arrested in Bury St. Edmunds, a place he said was "far off" and where "he was a stranger." The Paynes of Nowton and Bury were well known in Bury St. Edmunds, having been part of the Feoffees who ran the town for many years. [7] [8]It has also been shown that the Payne family of Bury was considered "conservative" in their religion, meaning they were more "catholic" in their beliefs. The majority of the feoffees of Bury were anti-Puritan until a 1606 shakeup of the town government. [9]
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Featured National Park champion connections: William is 11 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 20 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 12 degrees from George Catlin, 16 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 21 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 11 degrees from George Grinnell, 24 degrees from Anton Kröller, 13 degrees from Stephen Mather, 20 degrees from Kara McKean, 12 degrees from John Muir, 15 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 24 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.