In a letter of 8–9 January 1801, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra, “Mr Payne has been dead long enough for Henry to be out of mourning for him before his last visit, tho’ we knew nothing of it till about that time. Why he died, or of what complaint, or to what Noblemen he bequeathed his four daughters in marriage we have not heard.”1 The Mr. Payne in question was George Payne (c. 1729–1800), Austen’s first cousin once removed. Payne is largely unknown and appears infrequently in the secondary literature on Austen. Due to his various connections to the Austen family, however, he deserves our attention. He had an unusually checkered career. Payne served as Keeper of the Lions at the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London (1775–1801),2 Consul General in Morocco (1784–85), and Bencher of the Inner Temple (1791), and he was one of the executors of the will of Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston (1721–88). He crossed paths with prominent eighteenth-century figures, including George Lyttelton, first Baron Lyttelton (1709–73); Warren Hastings (1732–1818); Thomas Townshend, first Viscount Sydney (1733–1800); and even King George III (1738–1820) and his brother the Duke of Gloucester (1743–1805). While all these positions and contacts might suggest a successful career, the reality, as we shall see, was very different.
There is a surprisingly rich archival record for Payne, which has been largely neglected. I have found references to Payne and his family in parish registers in England, in Tysoe Saul Hancock’s letters from India, in diplomatic dispatches from Morocco. I have examined Payne’s own letters from Russia, as well as Deirdre Le Faye’s unpublished research papers, now held at Chawton House, which contain her own considerable findings on Payne. In what follows, I will make clear what is derived from Le Faye’s research and what is my own.
Drawing on all these sources, I have attempted to present a full account of Payne and his connection to the Austens. I will show how Payne and his family were known to Austen’s aunt Philadelphia Hancock (1730–92), as well as to her daughter, Austen’s first cousin Eliza de Feuillide (1761–1813). A particularly significant new finding is that Payne was married by his first cousin the Rev. George Austen, the novelist’s father, in 1757. I also examine Payne’s public profile, which involved travel to Morocco, France, and Russia for diplomacy, trade, and geopolitics. Examining Payne’s life and times provides insight into the world in which Austen was born and grew up, and enriches our understanding of the eighteenth century.
The Austen connections (and the larger network)
Le Faye’s Biographical Index in the Letters provides a useful summary of information on Payne and his family (Austen, Letters 560), and parish records provide further background on Payne’s four daughters—Harriet (1759–1814), Maria (1764–1826), Amelia (1767–78), and Louisa (1770–1856)—mentioned in Austen’s letter quoted above. Payne also had a son, another George (1777–1846).3 Le Faye notes, “By virtue of their common ancestor in Sir George Hampson, 4th Bt, the Hampsons, Paynes, and Freemans were all cousins in some degree of the Steventon Austens and the Kentish Walters” (Austen, Letters 530). An examination of various documentary sources enables us to untangle these complex relationships and is therefore a good place to start.
George Payne’s grandfather Capel Payne married Catherine Robinson on 9 April 1693 at St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester. In the same church on 21 May 1695 is a record for the baptism of their son Capel Payne, hereafter styled the younger. Capel Payne the younger was George Payne’s father. A Capel Payne, presumably the elder, was the Mayor of Gloucester in 1707–08 and again in 1710–11 (Ripley 63, 69). Among other siblings, the younger Capel had a sister, Catherine, George Payne’s aunt, who was baptized on 4 May 1704, and to whom we will return. Capel the younger appears to have had legal training, as one of the subscribers to The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England published in 1719 was “Mr. Capel Paine, of the Inner-Temple.” The archives of the Inner Temple confirm that a “Caple Payne,” with a father of the same name, of Gloucester, was admitted 12 May 1712 and was called on 14 June 1719. The younger Capel was made a freeman of Gloucester on 26 March 1722 (Ripley 84), and Le Faye states that he was Town Clerk (Austen, Letters 560), which is confirmed by Fosbrooke (422), who provides a date of 1764, also the year of his death (Musgrave 371). (See Appendix 1.)
Capel Payne the younger married Jane Hampson (1696–1767), the daughter of Sir George Hampson, 4th baronet (d. 1724). Along with other family members, she played a significant role at court and established relationships that would have a bearing on the future of her son, George Payne.4 Jane had a number of siblings, including a brother, Sir George Hampson, the fifth baronet (1699–1754), and two sisters, Elizabeth (1695–1733) and Rebecca (1693–1733); the latter was Jane Austen’s paternal grandmother. (See Appendix 2.)
Jane Hampson was baptized on 4 December 1696. Le Faye states that she married Capel Payne c. 1728 and notes that Jane was one of the Women of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales (Austen, Letters 560)—information supported by George Holbert Tucker, who provides a date range of 1736 to 1767 (22). The Princess of Wales mentioned here was Princess Augusta (1719–72), who married Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707–51), son of George II, in 1736, the year of Jane Payne’s appointment. The Princess was sixteen when she married and would become the mother of King George III (1738–1820).5 Jane Payne is mentioned in the Georgian Papers at least twice, on one occasion a “Mis Payne” is also included, so perhaps a daughter was also in royal service.6
One of Princess Augusta’s maids of honor was Elizabeth Chudleigh, later Duchess of Kingston, who served 1743–70 and therefore overlapped with Jane Payne. Le Faye notes in her research papers that Jane’s son George was one of the Duchess’s executors, as is confirmed by her will. Perhaps this position resulted from the friendship between the two women, but if so, it was a friendship that George Payne would come to regret.
This royal connection is significant because Jane Payne’s sister, Elizabeth Hampson (1695–1733), married George Cure (1692–1759). Le Faye notes that Cure was an upholsterer in the Haymarket, London, with royal appointment to the Prince of Wales (Austen, Letters 513). Cure was baptized on 10 May 1692, his father being another George Cure, also an upholsterer.7 Both father and son worked for the royal family,8 and after the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1751, Cure was appointed as Wardrobe Keeper to his widow, Princess Augusta, and would presumably have come into direct contact with his sister-in-law Jane Payne. George Cure is significant to the story of George Payne for another reason. After the death of Cure’s wife, Elizabeth Hampson, in 1733,9 he married Catherine Payne in 1735.10 Catherine was George’s aunt and therefore his mother’s sister-in-law. George Cure was therefore George Payne’s uncle twice over—i.e., he had married a sister of both his father and his mother.11 (See Appendix 2.)
I have been unable to trace a date of birth for George Payne, but Foster states that he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 3 November 1746, aged seventeen, which is presumably how Le Faye derived the birth year of 1729 (Austen, Letters 560). There is also a marriage allegation dated April 1757, which states that he is twenty-eight. George Payne followed in his father’s footsteps, being admitted to the Inner Temple on 6 March 1749 and called on 6 July 1753. He was made a bencher on 11 November 1791 and Treasurer in November 1800 (Foster 3: 1081). Le Faye notes that Payne married a lady named Elizabeth, surname unknown and no date given (Austen, Letters 560). Parish records indicate that George Payne married Elizabeth Eaton (1733–1818) by license on 18 April 1757 at St. George, Hanover Square.12 The Rev. George Austen performed the ceremony.
The Payne–Eaton marriage entry reveals that one of the witnesses was Temple West (bap. 1715–57). West’s presence is worth pausing over: he was an important figure in the navy, and Payne’s marriage occurred at a significant time in West’s life. Temple West’s father was Richard, Archdeacon of Berkshire, and his maternal uncle was Richard Temple, first Viscount Cobham (1675–1749). Temple West’s brother Gilbert (1703–56) was one of the authors included in Johnson’s Lives of the Poets. We will have cause to return to these various family connections.
In 1756, Temple West was sent to Minorca as second in command to Admiral John Byng. Their failure to defeat the French at the Battle of Minorca on 20 May 1756 resulted in Byng’s court-martial and execution, although no blame was attached to West. In fact, on 8 December, he was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue, but he subsequently “refused to serve on terms which subject an officer to the treatment shown Admiral Byng” (Harding). Byng was executed on 14 March 1757, just over a month before Payne’s wedding. Voltaire refers to Byng’s death in Candide, and it remains controversial to this day, with Byng’s descendants still lobbying, unsuccessfully, for a pardon. West himself died later that year, on 9 August—according to one account, partly due to grief over the fate of Byng (Charnock 4: 423). Since Byng’s execution was an event of national significance, George Austen and George Payne cannot have been unaware of it.
All this raises the question of how someone like Temple West came to be a witness at George Payne’s wedding. The answer might be found in West’s family background. Yet another of West’s cousins was George Lyttelton, first Baron Lyttelton (1709–73), statesman and author. Lyttelton was a close friend of West’s brother Gilbert. (See Appendix 3.) Fifty-four letters are preserved in the Huntington Library from Gilbert West, mostly to Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), author and literary hostess (Wilson). George Payne is mentioned in at least three of Montagu’s letters to Lyttelton, demonstrating that Payne and Lyttelton were acquainted and that Lyttelton visited Payne, possibly at Payne’s home at Weybridge, Surrey.13
The Official Guide to Weybridge states that Payne bought the estate Brooklands in 1757, presumably shortly after his marriage (Weybridge 30–31). The architect John Crunden (c.1741–1835) “was ‘imploy’d to direct’ the building of this house by Henry Holland, senior, and may or may not have been responsible for the design” (Colvin 288). Crunden describes it inConvenient and Ornamental Architecture (1767), in which Plate 36 of the work displays the façade and the plan of the house, “now building for [Payne] under my direction, at Brooklands, near Weybridge.” Crunden describes its situation and prospect:
The situation of this building is very desirable; in the fore front is a beautiful lawn, richly adorned with old oak trees, and other fine standards, covered from the north and east, with a plantation of several thousand young firs, of various species, in a flourishing habit, all planted by the worthy proprietor. The back front, which includes the best apartments, commands, at a little distance, the river Wey, and a very extensive prospect over a rich vale, bounded by a most beautiful chain of hills, which afford great variety of lights and shades, and consequently very pleasing and picturesque. (15).
It was a significant property.
Philadelphia Hancock (1730–92) is known to have visited the Paynes at Brookland. Indeed, her relationship to the Payne family was closer than has been previously appreciated. In addition to his connection to George Austen, Payne also had close ties to Philadelphia’s husband, Tysoe Saul Hancock (1723–75). The Paynes frequently appear in Hancock’s letters from India to his wife and daughter. These letters have been partially published in Austen Papers, compiled by Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (hereafter RAAL) in 1942—but as Le Faye notes, this set represents merely “a very few selective extracts from the letter-book” (“Austen Papers” 22). I have examined Hancock’s original letter book in the British Library (Add Mss 29,236) to verify the text, and I have found a number of additional references to the Payne family, some of which do not appear in Austen Papers. Le Faye mentions the connection between the two families in her biography of Eliza de Feuillide. What follows supplements and amplifies Le Faye’s material.
In a letter dated 27 December 1769, Tysoe Saul Hancock requests that Philadelphia give some ottar (or attar, a perfume) from India to Mrs. Payne (Add Mss 29,236 2; Austen Papers 42). He also states in a letter from 13 March 1771 that he might be able to make Mrs. Payne a present of a fine muslin handkerchief. Hancock’s letters make it clear that he also knew George Payne; he refers to him at least three times when asking Philadelphia to pass on his regards to the family.14 A passage dated 6 December 1771 deserves to be quoted in full, as it shows Hancock was in direct correspondence with the Paynes and clearly had a warm relationship with them:
You mentioned that Mrs Payne had wrote to me. I have not had the pleasure of a single line from either Mr or Mrs Payne. This I mention only, that you may account for my not having replied to any letter which may possibly have been written and miscarried. I beg you will remember me to the good family in the most affectionate manner. (Add Mss 29,236 11)15
Hancock’s letters also indicate that Philadelphia visited Brooklands, as he notes on 13 March 1771: “I am glad that you have pitched upon a place to your mind. I do not know Byfleet but I have searched the map and thereby made myself acquainted with its situation” (Add Mss 29,236 7).16 Byfleet is close to Brooklands, and in the same letter Hancock appears to refer to the birth of Payne’s youngest daughter, Louisa:
It gives me great pleasure to hear that Mrs Payne is so happily freed from her apprehensions. I beg you will present my respects and congratulations to the good lady. Believe me, dear Phila, a woman of your great sensibility ought not to be present on these occasions.
Philadelphia’s presence in Byfleet during this period is also confirmed by Mrs. Austen in two letters to Susannah Walter, wife of George Austen’s half-brother.17 All the information above suggests that Philadelphia was present at the birth. Had she perhaps gone to Brooklands to provide help and support to her cousin? Philadelphia provided similar support for Mrs. Austen at the birth of Cassandra in 1773, and possibly at Henry’s birth in 1771 (Le Faye, Family Record 34).
We can see that the families knew each other well and were clearly on friendly terms. How did they know each other? Did George Austen mention that his sister was in India? Or was Philadelphia herself the connection? Or is this an example of how in the eighteenth century, even distant relations were carefully cultivated for potential opportunities and patronage? Hancock’s letters indicate that he certainly needed all the help he could get. He prudently recommended that his daughter maintain her relationship with Payne’s daughters—advice that Eliza took, as we shall see. Another potential bridge between the Hancocks and the Paynes was Warren Hastings, who knew both families. Malden notes that Payne was a friend of Warren Hastings (3: 479), a point made by Le Faye in the Payne entry in her Biographical Index to Austen’s Letters. In her research papers, Le Faye identified other letters from Payne to Hastings that throw light on some of his other activities.
Although Michael E. Blackman posits that Payne and Hastings were more likely business associates than friends (5), this hypothesis is called into question by the references to Payne in Warren Hastings’s diaries collected by Le Faye in her Chronology. On 6 April 1789, Hastings wrote at Beaumont Lodge, his home near Windsor, “Mr. & Miss Payne visd. Us: brought a fine Puppy, wch. was instantly missing, & lost.” Three days later Hastings wrote, “At 11 set out wth. Mr. Payne for Chipping Norton,leavg. Miss P. at BL” (122).18 I have subsequently found additional entries in Hastings’s diary for 1789, indicating that he visited Payne at Brooklands (20 June) and that Hastings and his wife visited Margate with a Miss Payne, possibly Maria (3 August).
Morocco
Payne’s diplomatic career in Morocco is perhaps the one episode apart from his connection to Austen for which he is remembered. By all accounts, his mission was a complete failure. I have confirmed this by reviewing a file of correspondence at the National Archives, which, to my knowledge, no Austen researcher has previously examined. Further background information can also be found in Travels in Europe and Africa Comprising a Journey through France, Spain and Portugal to Morocco by Colonel Maurice Keatinge (1816; reissued in 1817 as Travels Through France and Spain to Morocco).19 The London Gazette announced that Payne was appointed “Consul General in all the Dominions of the Emperor of Morocco” on 11 November 1783.20 The Emperor of Morocco at this time was Muhammad III (1710–90), who played a significant role in the shaping of modern-day Morocco and who was one of the first to seek diplomatic relations with the fledgling United States. Maurice Keatinge accompanied Payne on his journey and described their relationship:
George Payne, Esq. had been recently appointed consul general in a diplomatic mission from Great Britain to the Court of Morocco; and from former intimacy an opening was now presented to the narrator for effecting what had been with him, an early wish, the penetration into a country the advanced accounts whereof, from Strabo and Leo Africanus to Windus and Braithwaite, proved that much of what ought to be known yet remained unexplored. (1–2)
Curiously, Keatinge does not mention Payne again by name in the rest of his account, which was not published until 1816, so Keatinge is describing events that occurred over thirty years before. Keatinge alludes to this delay in his introduction: “A variety and succession of reasons of the strongest kind called for delay, and under some circumstances might have imposed total silence. These however now no longer exist” (4). Was this statement a veiled allusion to the subsequent ill fate of Payne’s mission? Nonetheless, Keatinge’s work is useful, in that it provides dates that allow us to flesh out a chronology of events.
Payne’s tenure was short, with Budgett Meakin describing him as being recalled for neglect (363). Le Faye notes that Payne’s expenses were never reimbursed, so by all accounts it seems his diplomatic career was not a success. The folder of correspondence at The National Archives mentioned above contains over 260 numbered documents relating to Payne’s time as consul. These documents detail his departure for Morocco, his brief spell there, and his recall, as well as the period of his substitute, Charles Adam Duff.21 The exact sequence of events can sometimes be unclear, but we can at least trace Payne’s activities in Morocco. The folder opens with a letter from Payne dated 22 January 1784, in which he makes a case for building up a trading relationship with Morocco. He lists various items—“the produce of Barbary”—including “[g]old dust, ivory, olive oil, gums, indigo, wax, orchilla weed, ostrich feathers, Morocco leather, hides, almonds, dates, raisins with many other articles” (2). On 28 April 1784, a letter was issued from George III to the ruler of Morocco, Muhammad III, issuing credentials for Payne, “of whose fidelity and good conduct we are well assured” (12). News clearly traveled fast, as the transcript of baptisms at Weybridge notes that on 12 April 1784 William Butcher, the son of Nathaniel and Mary (both servants to “His Excellency George Payne Esq of Brooklands Consul-General of His Moorish Majesty the Emperor of Morocco”), was baptized (89). Le Faye refers to a letter written by Payne to Warren Hastings dated 27 March 1784, in which Payne states, “I am going for some months in a public character to the court of Morocco to negotiate a commercial treaty with the Emperor. My family, a wife, four daughters and a little son, go with me as far as Marseilles” (Add Mss 29,163 39).22
Payne’s appointment got off to a difficult start, mainly because he apparently saw no urgency in getting to Morocco to take up his post: his letter of 2 November 1784 to Lord Sydney stated that he had not been able to get to Morocco but was sending Duff, an English merchant, as his vice consul, while Payne himself would go to Nice (16). Three months later, on 8 February 1785, Sydney wrote to Payne that his wish to stay in the south of France on account of his family was unacceptable. Business in Morocco was at a standstill, and if he did not set off at once, he would be replaced (17). When he finally arrived in Morocco, Payne described the Europeans as desperate to stay in the good graces of the Emperor, the Spanish in particular having an especially impressive entourage (27).
A letter from 20 June 1785 recounts a meeting with the Emperor Muhammad III himself, whom Payne described as both avaricious and vain (34). The Emperor seemed to have thought well of Payne, stating in a letter of 4 June 1785, “We found him to be a man of a clear understanding and better acquainted with the nature of his mission than any of his predecessors” (80). Such praise was not universal.23 Payne’s deep attachment to his family, which perhaps got him in trouble on his journey to Morocco, appears again in a letter from 10 July 1785 to Evan Nepean, Under-Secretary of State. Payne wrote that heaven would not be so without his family, whom he had not seen in eight months. They were at Nice under the protection of the Duke of Gloucester, George III’s younger brother (40).24 On 9 September 1785 Payne was ordered by Sydney to return to England, bringing letters for the King from the Emperor. Not all his expenses had been approved, and Sydney instructed Payne to appoint someone in his stead (44–45).
From this point, we rely on the letters of Payne’s replacement, Charles Adam Duff, who is a key source for Payne’s would-be misdemeanors. In a letter of 12 August 1785, Duff noted that the internal part of the linen that Payne presented to the Emperor as a gift was of an inferior quality when compared to the exterior. The Emperor was furious at the deception and threatened to publish the fraud to all European courts (47).25 The Emperor also claimed that Payne had not delivered all the gifts intended for him, although this claim may have been a means of creating a diplomatic incident and a bargaining chip for the Emperor. Although Duff accused Payne of parsimony (48), John Hutchinson, British Vice Consul, stated in a letter to Duff that Payne promised pensions to a number of people in the service of the court of Morocco (71). Hutchinson mentioned here and elsewhere that he had seen some of Payne’s promissory notes, and they are also referenced elsewhere (201, 231).
Did Payne overstep the mark in his negotiations and offer too much, or not enough? Perhaps he offered the wrong amounts to the wrong people. Payne himself seems to have been quite hard-headed about the affair, arguing to Sydney when submitting his expenses:
No possible means were to be found of making my way to [the Emperor] but by liberally interesting, not to say bribing, the great men who are all linked together and surround his Imperial Majesty. This I did, confiding in your Lordship’s support more especially as you said in one of your letters that the King trusted the business to my management and discretion and did not expect that it should be done without expense. (98)
Payne’s bearing as a diplomat also attracted criticism. Duff recounted that, at the first audience with the Emperor, “Mr Payne was so intimidated by the Emperor’s presence that he could scarce falter out a few words to signify his commission” (144). He concluded with the damning statement:
I will not trouble your Lordship with a repetition of many parts of my former letters concerning the Emperor's dissatisfaction with Mr Payne. I can with great truth assert that he has endeavoured to mislead your Lordship by a false representation of his Majesty’s affairs in this country and that he left them more embroiled through his ill judged negotiations than they were before his arrival. (145).
Shortly after this, on 27 May 1786, Duff wrote to Sydney that Payne, perhaps inevitably, had decided to resign (215). Keatinge’s account, however, is rather different: “On the 27th May the embassy quitted the quiet and seclusion of the gardens of Morocco, in consequence of a summary notice from the Sultan to that effect” (2: 1). In summing up the mission, or rather its failure, Keatinge tried to be diplomatic: “Various and obvious reasons debar full discussion upon such points, even at a period, now so remote, that the feelings of individuals are no longer in danger of being wounded, could, as is by no means the case, any matter of disparagement be disclosed” (1: 346). The long-suffering Duff put himself forward as Payne’s replacement (215)—a fact that might call the validity of his criticism of Payne into question—but it was James Mario Matra who became his successor. Given these contradictory accounts, it is unclear how exactly Payne conducted himself in Morocco. By his own account, however, he seems to have had no qualms about offering bribes and even doing so quite openly. As noted above, Payne’s contingent expenses were not approved, and years later he was still pursuing compensation.
Payne provided further detail on his time in Morocco in two letters to Warren Hastings. The first refers to the dispute regarding Payne’s expenses. Payne wrote a letter to Hastings on 8 May 1799, as noted by Le Faye and by Blackman (5), in which Payne apologized for not being able to repay in full a loan that Hastings made him. He also complained that the government had not reimbursed him for expenses incurred during his time in Morocco. The same letter also mentions that Payne visited Hastings at his estate, Daylesford (Add Mss 29,176 360). A 1798 letter from Payne to Hastings provides another potential sidelight on Payne’s time in Morocco. Payne mentions an aged horse, Abdallah, that he cannot bear to kill; Hastings appears to have allowed it to end its days peacefully at Daylesford (Add Mss 29,140 178). Given his name, it is possible that the horse Abdallah originated from North Africa.26
Keeper of the Lions
Payne’s letters to Hastings also refer to another unexpected facet of Payne’s life: his role as Keeper of the Lions at the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London, a position he occupied from 1775 to 1801. The role was largely a sinecure—probably yet another position Payne was awarded simply because of his influential connections. A letter dated 27 March 1784, where Payne states that he is going to Morocco, contains a curious postscript: “The tigers never found their way to England” (Add Mss 29,163 39). In a letter to Hastings dated 15 January 1780, and discovered by Le Faye, Payne states: “I have not been so fortunate as to receive the savage captives the Resolution, on board which they were to have their passage, not being arrived. I mentioned them to the King as a present to his Majesty from Mr Hastings which makes me the more regret their not coming” (Add Mss 29,144 246). The phrase “savage captives” here is presumably a reference to lions or some other wild animals.
Travels to France and Russia as executor
As one of the executors of the Duchess of Kingston’s will, Payne traveled to France and Russia. To my knowledge, documentary evidence regarding Payne’s time in Russia has been overlooked by Austen researchers—where, once again, Payne was accused of incompetence and mismanagement. As noted above, Elizabeth Chudleigh, the Duchess of Kingston, had served as a maid of honor to Princess Augusta at the same time as Payne’s mother had. She specifically left to Mrs. Payne “my gold watch and chain set with small brilliants and my large ruby ring and after her death to her eldest daughter if she pleases” (Egerton 3524 78). This connection might have been the reason that the Duchess chose Payne as one of her three executors, along with Sir George Shuckburgh and Sir Richard Heron. The Duchess had led a colorful life, and her will reflected it.27 Although long and detailed, the will left significant gaps. Moreover, the Duchess, deeply in debt, died in France, and there was some doubt as to whether the will was valid there.
Payne stated that he was in France on 12 September (Egerton 3524 191), but as Heron noted, “the Business is a perfect Hydra, and requires a Hercules to combat it” (Egerton 3524 138). The Duchess also owned property in Russia, so, in addition to visiting Paris to attempt to sort out the Duchess’s complex affairs, Payne went as far afield as St. Petersburg. A collection of documents relating to the executorship at the University of Nottingham includes some from Russia. In the first letter, from St. Petersburg, dated 25 January 1790 (old style), Payne makes ironic reference to the weather. His words also suggest that one of his daughters accompanied him:28
Miss Payne joins in compliments and thanks for your kind wishes for the continuance of her health. I am perfectly well and think the climate a very healthy one. We only complain that it is not cold enough for the time of year notwithstanding one of my servants noses was frozen yesterday morning it was indeed 26 degrees below the freezing point by the thermometer. (Ma 3316 1)
Did Payne’s daughter accompany him for the sake of his comfort, or was he perhaps hoping to introduce her to a suitable husband among diplomatic circles? If the Austens were aware of this journey, that knowledge might explain Austen’s odd comment in her letter to Cassandra: “to what Noblemen [Payne] bequeathed his four daughters in marriage we have not heard” (8–9 January 1801).
Payne’s letters from Russia detail his exasperation at the incessant delays in settling the Duchess’s affairs and his eventual failure to do so. As with his time in Morocco, he notes his unhappiness in being separated from his family. In a letter dated 9 May, Payne is still in St Petersburg: “I fear the business will detain me here a month longer, I have gone too far to retreat, though I am heartily sick of the country and their proceedings” (Ma 3316 2). In a subsequent letter dated 20 May, Payne’s frustration boils over: “If I could have foreseen that I should have met with so much trouble and vexation as I have experienced here, and have suffered so long an absence from my family I should not have been induced for double my legacy to have undertaken the business” (Ma 3316 3). Payne eventually assigned his duties to Colonel Mikhail Garnovsky and returned to England (Ma 3316 12). The Duchess’s complex legacy continued to unravel for some time.29 Although Sir Richard Heron described the Duchess’s business as a “Hydra,” he was also skeptical of Payne’s capacity: “Although Mr Payne is a very honourable gentleman, he does not seem sufficiently conversant in business, or of sufficient activity to lead us through that wilderness, otherwise, I believe he would readily return hither” (Egerton 3524 138). Although it is tempting to think that Payne’s experience as executor was a rerun of his ill-fated diplomatic career, his fellow executors, who remained in England, may simply have been unaware of the reality that Payne had to face in France and Russia.
The Payne daughters and the Austens
At this point it is worth considering Payne’s four daughters, whom Austen mentions in her 1801 letter. Less than five years earlier, Frances Burney had published Camilla (1796) by subscription. Jocelyn Harris has noted that among the subscribers are Maria Payne and “Mr. Payn” of Oxford. It is plausible that these subscribers are George Payne and his daughter Maria. Warren Hastings was an avid supporter of Burney in her attempt to gain subscribers (Hemlow 250), and perhaps he suggested to George Payne, via his daughter, that they subscribe. Le Faye states that Payne’s daughter Maria “seems to have lived almost permanently at Daylesford as a companion to Hastings’s wife Marian” (Austen, Letters 560).30 Le Faye cites as evidence Austen’s letter of 30 November–1 December 1800: “But like Mrs Hastings, ‘I do not despair—’ & you perhaps like the faithful Maria may feel still more certain of the happy Event” (386 n1).31
There is further documentary evidence regarding Maria and her connection with the Hastings family. Among Warren Hastings’s papers (from 1795) congratulating him on his acquittal at the conclusion of his lengthy impeachment trial are three letters asking him to pass on regards to “Miss Payne.” Since Payne mentions sending a letter to Maria via Hastings in a letter of 1798, it is possible that Maria is the daughter referred to. The first letter is from Henry Austen and appears in Austen Papers (153–54); the second is docketed “James Leigh,” presumably James Henry Leigh (1765–1823), Austen’s second cousin (Add Mss 29,174 39);32 and the third, transcribed by Le Faye in her research notes, was written by the poet Lady Sophia Burrell (1753–1802) and dated 25 April 1795 (Add Mss 29,173, 419). Le Faye notes a letter from Mrs. Payne to Hastings written after the death of her husband (c. 1802–03). She touches on the illness of her daughter Louisa, and notes that Maria’s nursing her meant that “she was so frequently disappointed of her promised pleasure in being with you and Mrs Hastings” (Add Mss 29,193 465–6). Le Faye also notes a joint letter from Sir John D’Oyly, a Hastings intimate (Losty), and Maria Payne from c. 1800. Maria refers to her “beloved Mrs Hastings” and expresses concern for the health of Lady D’Oyly, who died in 1803 (Add Mss 29,177 201). It appears that Sir John also befriended Maria, as I have found a reference to a Miss Payne staying with him in a letter to him from Warren Hastings dated 15 October 1799 (Add Mss 29,177 106–07).
Additional references to the family appear in the later part of Austen’s correspondence. On 30 April 1811, Austen notes, “I forgot to tell you in my last, that our cousin Miss Payne called in on Saturday & was persuaded to stay dinner.—She told us a great deal about her friend Lady Cath. Brecknell, who is most happily married—& Mr Brecknell is very religious, & has got black Whiskers” (195). There is no annotation for this passage, but on Brecknell, Le Faye’s Biographical Index notes: “Married 9 October 1810 Lady Catherine Colyear, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Portmore” (Austen, Letters 499). A few years earlier, Austen had written to Cassandra, “The Portsmouth paper gave a melancholy history of a poor Mad Woman, escaped from Confinement, who said her Husband & Daughter of the Name of Payne lived at Ashford in Kent. Do You own them?” (24 January 1809).
In addition to the references from Austen’s letters, the Payne daughters appear elsewhere in Tysoe Saul Hancock’s correspondence. We also know that Hancock’s daughter, Eliza, was certainly in contact with at least one of them, indicating that the family relationship was maintained into the second generation. On 21 November 1771, Hancock specifically advises Eliza, “Pray give my compliments to [the] Miss Paynes. I hope you are in strict friendship with them” (Add Mss 29,236 10; Le Faye, Outlandish Cousin 29). Eliza seems to have taken her father’s advice, as a letter from her to Philadelphia Walter dated 4 August 1797 remarks that since Philadelphia would not accompany Eliza to Cheltenham, Eliza “determined to try my luck with another Cousin that is to say the eldest Miss Payne” (Outlandish Cousin 144). The eldest Miss Payne would have been Harriet (1759–1814), and Eliza notes that they share a fondness for pugs: “You must know that Miss Payne has as great a partiality as myself for these lovely animals, and consequently a Pug of hers as well as my own is of the travelling party” (Outlandish Cousin 144). Eliza mentions visiting Hastings at Daylesford. Eliza enjoyed Harriet’s company: “on my return [to London] I shall lose Miss P’s Society, which I shall regret as her good humour and Ease render her a very pleasant Companion”; then she adds that she and Harriet “gather hearts by dozens” (Outlandish Cousin 146).
Payne’s death
How did George Payne understand his life and career? Did he consider himself a failure? Or perhaps ill-used and unappreciated? Were his actions in Morocco and as executor a cause of embarrassment for him and his family? As noted above, Payne’s letter to Hastings from 1799 complained that he had still not been reimbursed for his expenses from Morocco. He also defended himself vigorously against charges of inefficiency regarding his role as executor. If the accusations made against him were true, it seems that he lacked self-knowledge. George Payne died on 7 December 1800, as Warren Hastings recorded in his diary: “I recd. a lr. [letter] from Mr Ives, Apy. [apothecary] at Chertsey, informing me of the death of Mr. Payne, on ye morng. of ye 7th after an illness of 2 days” (Le Faye, Chronology 249). His death was reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine (70.2: 122; 71.1: 274), which mentioned his time in Morocco and his role as keeper at the Tower. Payne was buried at nearby Walton-on-Thames on 15 December.
Sir John D’Oyly, a friend of both Payne and Hastings, helped the family to navigate their affairs after Payne’s death. I have found a letter from Hastings to Sir John D’Oyly dated 21 December 1800, which invites Sir John to Daylesford for Christmas; it indicates that Sir John was at Brooklands, possibly to provide solace and to help the family with Payne’s affairs. Hastings concludes: “Give our love to poor Maria. It was kindly considerate in you to shew this mark of your friendship in the hour of her affliction” (Add Mss 29,177 353). Payne’s wife and daughters were going to need Sir John’s help: Payne died intestate, and a probate inventory in the National Archives details his various debts, which his wife had to deal with.33 Payne’s house did not long survive him: “In 1803 it was advertized for sale by the description of a mansion in the midst of 145 acres of park-like ground, and 150 other acres, much of which was meadow, bounded by the Wey for two miles. The Crown refused to renew the lease, which would expire in 1834, and the existing term of years was purchased by the Duke of York, who pulled the house down” (Manning and Bray 789).
We can briefly trace the subsequent history of Payne’s family. His widow died on 2 March 1818 and was buried on 14 March 1818; she was around eighty-five (Gentleman’s Magazine 88.1: 470). Like their parents, Payne’s remaining daughters were buried at Walton. According to the West Surrey Family History Society’s Walton Transcriptions, Harriet Payne was buried on 31 December 1814, aged fifty-five (173); Maria was buried on 4 July 1826 (184), aged around sixty-two; Louisa was buried on 21 February 1856, aged around eighty-five (220). None seems to have married. (A record appears in the Weybridge transcript of burials for Amelia on 11 May 1778 [72].) Payne’s son, another George, married Anna Maria Legg at St. Paul, Covent Garden, on 22 March 1806. He had at least two daughters. The baptismal record of his daughter from 1810 notes that he was a senior captain in the 2nd Regiment of the Surrey militia (117). He appears in the burial register at Walton-on-Thames on 29 September 1846, where he is described as “Major late of Weybridge” (210).
Having followed George Payne through the course of his life, what can we conclude? The archival record indicates that he was sociable and devoted to his family. Warren Hastings considered him a friend, and Payne’s care for an aged horse suggests a kind-hearted man. Yet the same record also suggests that his high-profile positions owed more to family connections than to ability. His period as consul general was marred by accusations of negligence and even complicity in corruption. His death must have triggered a period of great strain for his wife and family, who had to deal with his debts. But what is most surprising about Payne is how full the archival record for him and his family is. He is mentioned in documents from England, North Africa, Russia, and India. We can trace him from London to Oxford, from his home in Surrey over Europe to Morocco and even as far afield as St. Petersburg. But why should we? What do we gain?
The mass of information now available online makes it much easier to trace the course of Payne’s life than the effort required from earlier researchers like Le Faye. A detail that would have taken Le Faye many hours of patient searching can now be found with the click of a mouse. This expanded scope of vision allows us to take more of a bird’s-eye view and to make wider associations more readily—such as the various royal connections that linked the Paynes and Cures, or the political ones that brought Payne into the orbit of the Lytteltons and Wests.
Following the course of Payne’s life is instructive. He is not simply a distant cousin mentioned once by Austen in a throwaway reference. We have discovered that he was married by Austen’s father and that he was on close terms with her aunt and uncle. His mother’s background in royal service provides an interesting sidelight on a branch of Austen’s forebears that has received little attention, and Payne’s close connection with Warren Hastings is an additional link between Hastings and the Austens. Reviewing Payne’s life reminds us that the notion of “six degrees of separation” was arguably present in the eighteenth century, and that the globalization we think of as being a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon has a much deeper history. By reviewing Payne’s diplomatic career in Morocco, his travails in Russia, his court connections, and his friendship with men like Warren Hastings, we can clarify our perspective on and sharpen our vision of Austen’s world. Further, Payne’s life reminds us that even in a post-Le Faye world, there is still much material in libraries, archives, and record offices waiting to be discovered and examined.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the staff at The British Library, The National Archives, and the Society of Genealogists for their kind assistance. I would also like to thank Jo Strong, Mick Bright, Nick Hills, Steve McCarthy, and Emma Shepley.
NOTES
1Le Faye states that Mr. Payne was “[o]ne of the Austens’ maternal cousins” (Austen, Letters 387 n1), but, to clarify, George Payne’s and George Austen’s mothers were sisters, so the relationship was via Jane Austen’s father. Note that all references to the Letters are to the fourth edition unless otherwise indicated.
2I am grateful to Emma Shepley of the Historic Royal Palaces for providing the dates of Payne’s service (email 26 September 2024). Confirmation that Payne was appointed “Keeper of His Majesty’s Lions in the Tower of London” on 4 November 1775 appears in The London Gazette (Issue 11611: 4): https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/11611/page/4.
3Note that Amelia died before the date of Austen’s letter. See below for details of a potential fifth daughter. Le Faye states Louisa’s name to be Louisa Anne (Austen, Letters 560), but the transcript of Weybridge baptisms has Louisa Jane (West Surrey Family History Society 66). Unless otherwise stated, all dates concerning births, christenings, marriages, and deaths are derived from parish records.
4Le Faye states that Jane Payne died in 1786 in Gloucester (Austen, Letters 560), but 1767 is given in Le Faye’s Chronology (733). Jane Payne’s will was made on 23 September 1764 and proved on 25 November 1767 (PROB 11/933/378). Ancestry records the burial of Jane Payne on 3 February 1767 at St. Andrew, Holborn. This date was kindly confirmed by Nick Hills, Director and Clerk to the Trustees of St. Andrew, Holborn, who added that Jane died on 29 January 1767, her body being brought from her home at St. James, Westminster. She was buried in a lead coffin in the crypt; her body was exhumed in 2001, along with nearly 2,000 other bodies when the crypt was emptied. The bodies were reinterred at the City of London Cemetery at Wanstead, East London (email 28 October 2024). Note that Le Faye has Sir Thomas Hampson in the Letters, as opposed to Sir George (Austen, Letters 560).
5Tucker mentions Jane Payne’s service at court; he also states that she was present at the birth of George III, but without providing a source (22). Le Faye’s research papers refer to a letter from George Payne to Warren Hastings dated 15 January 1780, where Payne appears to be name-dropping on a monumental scale: “Forgetting the last twenty years of my life I have been constantly hunting with the King and Prince of Wales, which I have been induced to persevere in from the very particular notice he has honoured me with as an old acquaintance” (Add Mss 29,144 246). Was this relationship owing to Payne’s mother and her court service?
6For information on the Georgian Papers, see https://georgianpapers.com/about/. For “Mis Payne” see f.5 and for “Mrs. Payne” ff.5–6 https://gpp.rct.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=FAW%2f2%2f3%2f38&pos=9 (GEO/MAIN/55048-55052). See also https://gpp.rct.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=FAW%2f1%2f3%2f2%2f21&pos=2 (GEO/MAIN/74047). Mrs. Payne’s will mentions a daughter, Jane.
7https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/cure-george-1691-1718
8The BIFMO entry for Cure the younger states, “His recorded commissions appear to be entirely for Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales.” He was responsible for providing various furnishings between 1731 and 1747. A bill from 1749 for the Prince of Wales for soft furnishings, upholstery, and a supply of bed linen can be seen via the Georgian Papers here: http://185.121.204.84/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=FAW%2F2%2F2%2F60 (GEO/MAIN/54858-54859).
9Le Faye’s research papers note that The Gentleman’s Magazine for November 1733 has the following entry under “Deaths” dated 19 November: “The Wife of Mr Cuer, an Upholsterer in the Hay-Market, and Daughter of the late Sir George Hampson, Bart” (607). Le Faye noted, “[N]othing else Cure or Cuer between 1731 and 1746.”
10The marriage bond dated 10 June 1735 has survived. Le Faye’s research papers state that George Cure married Catherine Payne on 11 June 1735 at Charterhouse Chapel, Finsbury. Note that the third edition of the Letters states 1735 for Cure’s marriage to Catherine Payne (514), as does Harris, but the fourth edition of the Letters states c.1743 (513, 560). It is unclear why this date was changed.
11George Cure was also George Austen’s uncle (by marriage). He had at least two sons with Catherine; one of them, Capel Cure (1746–1820), may well be the Mr. Cure whom Austen mentions in a letter of 25 April 1811 and who would have been George Payne’s cousin (Letters 513).
12An Elizabeth Eaton, child of Captain Edward Eaton and his wife, Elizabeth, was baptized at St. George, Hanover Square on 23 May 1733.
13These letters are dated 14 July 1757 (https://emco.swansea.ac.uk/emco/letter-view/989/); 6 August 1758 (https://emco.swansea.ac.uk/emco/letter-view/1077/); and 29 September 1759 (https://emco.swansea.ac.uk/emco/letter-view/1078/). Payne’s wife, Elizabeth, is mentioned in a fourth letter dated 23 October 1757 (https://emco.swansea.ac.uk/emco/letter-view/994/).
1417 January 1770 (Add Mss 29,236 3; Austen Papers 45); 7 September 1770 (Add Mss 29,236 5; Austen Papers 51).
15For the convenience of the reader, spelling and punctuation of all manuscript material have been modernized for clarity, unless stated otherwise.
16There is also another reference to Byfleet later that year: “Your description of Byfleet pleases me as the place seems much to your mind” (Add Mss 29,236 9).
17“Her direction is at Byfleet, near Cobham, Surrey” (26 August 1770), and “I have a great notion she will soon be tired of Byfleet as it seems to be a very bad Winter place” (9 December 1770) (Le Faye, “Austen Papers” 25, 26). Le Faye makes the point that her transcripts, rather than those appearing in RAAL’s Austen Papers, should be used for these letters going forward, since RAAL’s transcriptions are not wholly accurate (21). For example, RAAL does not note Byfleet in his transcript of the first letter quoted above (“Austen Papers” 25).
18There is a further reference to Payne on 11 April 1789.
19The Wellcome Library has Keatinge’s personal copy of the 1816 edition with his own annotations (EPB/C/30874). I have examined this copy but found no annotations relating to Payne. The library also has an 1817 edition (EPB/D/30875), but this does not appear to have been Keatinge’s. For further information on Keatinge, see Stearn and Woods.
20See https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/12491/page/1/data.pdf. The announcement also made the first entry of the front page of The Salisbury and Winchester Journal and Hampshire Chronicle for 17 November 1783. Could the Austens have seen it? (Note that Le Faye states that he was ambassador [Austen, Letters 560], but the newspaper article states that he was consul general.)
21See file FO 2/6, “Consuls George Payne, Charles Adam Duff, and James Duff.” Note that one document can have multiple ID numbers—e.g., a letter that continues over several pages. I have referred to a document’s ID when quoting. Alan Frost reviewed this file, and others in this series, as part of his research for his biography of James Matra (1995). Frost has a useful and highly critical account of Payne’s brief, unsuccessful diplomatic career 127–29).
22Austen’s letter quoted earlier also mentioned four daughters; as noted above, parish records indicate that Payne’s third daughter, Amelia, born in 1767, was buried in 1778, so Payne’s statement here requires explanation. A possible solution appears in the Walton transcript of burials, which notes that an Elizabeth Payne was buried in 1837 aged sixty-four. This would make her year of birth around 1773, so perhaps she was also Payne’s daughter.
23An account of the mission’s first meeting with the Emperor, as well as a description of the Emperor, is provided by Keatinge, who was careful not to mention Payne by name, although he seems to allude to him (1: 37–38).
24The Duke was a friend of Lord Sydney (Archer). Austen mentioned his death in her letters of 27 August 1805 and 30 August 1805.
25Keatinge mentions the gifts presented to the Emperor, including the bales of linen, but says nothing about the Emperor’s subsequent displeasure (1: 254).
26Frost, regarding Payne’s departure from North Africa in 1785, notes: “As he went, he practised one last deception. The son of the governor of Tangier owned a fine stallion. Giving the young man to understand that he would receive a diamond ring in exchange, Payne took the horse to France. Two years later, the young lord was still waiting for his ring” FO 52/7 26, 128 n35 Could the horse have been Abdallah?
27See Corley. For Elizabeth Chudleigh’s connection with Gowland and his lotion, see Hussain.
28The collection is catalogued as Ma 3316, “Letters from George Payne and John Beardsworth to Sir Richard Heron concerning the Duchess of Kingston’s will and her business properties in England and Russia; 1790–1792.” Ostler and Gervat have drawn on these letters in their biographies of the Duchess.
29For further details on Payne’s executorship, see Gervat (240–43) and Ostler (353–64). Ostler takes a dim view of Payne’s conduct as executor.
30Le Faye states that Maria was the eldest daughter, but Harriet was actually the eldest.
31Could the reference to “the faithful Maria” here actually be a reference to Laurence Sterne as opposed to Maria Payne? We know Austen was familiar with Sterne, as she refers to “Uncle Toby’s annuity” (14 September 1804, 393 n9). There is of course a Maria in Sterne’sTristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy and Cassandra produced a watercolor of Sterne’s Maria in 1808 (Barchas). In Mansfield Park, Maria Bertram quotes from Sterne’s Sentimental Journey: “‘I cannot get out, as the starling said’” (116).
32Henry’s letter is among the Hastings papers (Add Mss 29,174 25). Le Faye also references a letter from Elizabeth Leigh (1735–1816), James Henry Leigh’s aunt, dated 24 February 1796, which was addressed to a Miss Payne (Add Mss 29,174 272–73). Le Faye noted that this Miss Payne was probably Maria, which seems plausible. Austen Papers also includes a letter from Mary Leigh to Warren Hastings dated 24 January 1790, which also passes on “kind compliments to Miss Payne” (225; Add Mss 29,172 24). In other words, the presence of a Miss Payne at Daylesford was known to the Leighs at Adlestrop, as well as the Austens at Steventon.
33PROB 31/1009/967. Exhibit: 1807/967. George Payne, esq of Brooklands, Surrey. Probate inventory, or declaration, of the estate of the same, deceased, with account.
