General Notes

Arms: Argent, on a fess, engrailed, gules, between three martlets sable, as many mascles or, all within a bordure of the second, bezantee,  Crest: a wolfs head erazed, azure charged with five bezants salterwise.   Visitation of Suffolk County   Kinght.
Sir Thomas Payne, Knight.

Beginning with “Visitation”, of Suffolk we have first in the list, the name Sir Thomas Payne Knight, of Market Bosworth, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Poultney, Knight, the ancestor of William Poultney, Earl of Bath, the celebrated statesman, who acted so important a part, first as Minister of War, and afterwards as Premier of England in the early part of the last century. The dates of Sir Thomas’ birth, or death, are neither of them 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 dates of their births are neither of them given, but the record shows the younger of the three alive in the 32nd year of King Henry VIII., or A.D. 1540, at which time he had a grandson, then a rich and active man, as will be more apparent in what follows. This fact would seem to establish the birth of Sir Thomas, the great grandfather of a wealthy business man, according to the usual average of life and birth at or nearly as early as, the year 1400.
    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 cpounty, the genealogy of a “Robert Payne” is given, the particulars of which would seem to establish identity with Robert, the son of Thomas, except that his Coat of Arms was not identical. As different sons often did adopt different coats from their father, this fact alone does not disapprove the identity. This family was generally settled at St. Neot’s, a place but little remote from the place where Edmund’s family resided, in and about St. Edmundsbury and Nowton in the County of Suffolk.

Arms: Argent, on a fess, engrailed, gules, between three martlets sable, as many mascles or, all within a bordure of the second, bezantee,  Crest: a wolfs head erazed, azure charged with five bezants salterwise.   Visitation of Suffolk County