PAYN, Richard, of Salisbury, Wilts.

It seems likely that Richard Payn, whose origins remain obscure, was the man of this name living at Plaitford, on the border of Wiltshire and Hampshire, who was bound by a statute staple sealed at Southampton in September 1412 to pay a Winchester tradesman the sum of £12. He failed to comply on the day appointed so an order went out for his arrest. Also as ‘of Plaitford’, but styled ‘husbandman’ rather than merchant, this Richard Payn was outlawed for failing to appear in the court of common pleas to answer Thomas Ringwood in a suit for trespass; he secured a pardon of outlawry early in 1428. C241/215/22; CPR, 1422-9, p. 437. What is certain is that the MP for Salisbury was a merchant and in all probability a relative of John Payn I*, a figure of consequence in Southampton’s overseas trade. Their kinship is suggested not only by the coincidence that John found a market for his imported merchandise in Salisbury (where Richard settled by the early 1420s), but that he invested in property in the city and his sister was living there at the time of his death. PCC 18 Godyn (PROB11/5, ff. 129-30). More significantly, the two men were often associated in commercial affairs, acting as partners in their trading ventures. The highly litigious John Payn joined with Richard in bringing a number of pleas in the lawcourts at Westminster. For instance, in Michaelmas term 1439 (when Richard was at Westminster attending Parliament) they together sued men from Bristol, Bath and Wareham who owed them money, and in 1442 they alleged that a merchant and mariner from Poole was indebted to them both in £20. Together, a year later John and Richard entered bonds in £1,000 to the Somerset landowner Thomas Cheddar as an undertaking not to pursue judgement against him for damages and costs in a lawsuit. CP40/715, rot. 66d; 724, rot. 170; E326/9479.

Although the scale of Richard’s overseas trade never matched John’s, like him he used the port of Southampton, from whence he regularly had goods such as butts of wine, madder and woad carted to Salisbury for sale there. Brokage Bk. 1439-40 (Soton. Rec. Soc. 1941), 135; 1443-4, i. (Soton. Rec. Ser. iv), 21, 66, 121; Port and Brokage Bks. 1448-9 (Soton Rec. Ser. xxxvi), 93, 141, 156, 161-2, 167. Like John too he had dealings with the Italian merchants who came to England, although such transactions might sometimes turn sour. In Hilary term 1431 the resident Florentine agent in Southampton, Paolo Morelli, and one of his fellow countrymen alleged that Richard owed them £39 12s. At the same time Payn himself was present in the common pleas to sue some chapmen and clothiers from as far apart as Dorset and Norfolk for sums amounting to £58 10s. CP40/680, rots. 268, 342d. Such suits provide an impression of the scope of his mercantile interests, as do pleadings over the next few years which saw him pursuing a weaver, dyer and baker from Warminster in Wiltshire, mariners from Lincolnshire, men of Bristol and Hull, and mercers of Poole. Closer to home he took action in Hilary term 1445 against William Pakyn* a citizen and former mayor of Salisbury. He contended that in September 1439 Pakyn had made a bond with him in £100, which would be cancelled after he handed over £81 13s. 4d. in instalments, but the defendant had failed to pay the sum due the previous Michaelmas. CP40/700, rot. 287; 721, rot. 173d; 724, rots. 148d, 230d; 736, rot. 333.

Since Payn had settled in Salisbury, in 1426 or earlier, he had acquired a number of properties there, including a corner tenement on Endless Street and Chipper Lane, Salisbury Domesday bk. 2, G23/1/214, f. 125; CP40/688, rot. 405d; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 571. and participated in the administration of the city by regularly attending convocations of the citizens. First General Entry Bk. 255, and passim. On 2 Nov. 1429 Richard Gatour*, the coroner of Salisbury, and Thomas Freeman*, a prominent merchant, came forward to act as his pledges for payment of a fee of £3 to be excused the office of alderman, Ibid. 260, 264. although he soon afterwards agreed to be a member of the council of 24. Payn participated in the city’s parliamentary elections in 1432, 1433 and late 1436, Ibid. 282, 289, 325. and meanwhile in September 1436 he was named as an assessor of subsidies granted to the Crown (a task he undertook twice more in later years). Ibid. 322, 371, 451. He was one of the body of 13 members of the 24 who in January 1437 pardoned the mayor, Freeman, the fine of £3 which they had condemned him to pay to the chamberlains in recompense for his unpleasant behaviour. Ibid. 326. Over the years Payn contributed to the loans levied in Salisbury in response to demands from the Crown, in sums ranging from 6s. 8d. (in 1426) to £1 (in 1434 and 1448-9), although for the most part set at 10s. His commitment to Salisbury and concern for the inhabitants’ continued well-being is also suggested by his contributions towards the repair of tenements belonging to the commonalty, and the digging of earthworks. Ibid. 254, 273, 288, 297, 319, 321B, 345B, 360A, 364, 391, 431.

Payn was elected to represent Salisbury in the Parliament summoned to assemble on 12 Nov. 1439 in company with William Ludlow II*, the yeoman of the King’s cellar who was clerk of the statute merchant in the city. At the close of the Parliament on 24 Feb. 1440 the mayor and commonalty were ordered to pay the two MPs 2s. a day each for 88 days’ service, including the time spent travelling to and from sessions. Ibid. 348, 351. Nothing is known about Payn’s involvement in the business of the Commons, but he evidently performed satisfactorily for in the following year he was elected one of the constables. At the elections held at Wilton for the next Parliament, of 1442, he stood surety for the appearance in the Commons of the bishop of Salisbury’s bailiff Robert Long* as one of the city’s representatives. C219/15/2. Long was accompanied to Parliament by Thomas Freeman and following their return home Payn joined the latter in another public undertaking, made on 18 May 1442, whereby they agreed to build a gate next to St. Edmund’s church within the following five weeks. First General Entry Bk. 370. That October Payn served on the jury at Salisbury giving evidence at the inquisition post mortem on Sir Humphrey Stafford*. C139/105/9. His involvement in civic affairs culminated with election to the highest office – that of mayor – on 2 Nov. 1445, at the same time as Thomas Payn (perhaps a relation) became chamberlain. First General Entry Bk. 401-2, 404-5. During his term his putative kinsman John Payn I came before him as mayor of the staple to receive statutes merchant from a man from Poole. C241/233/13; 235/12.

It was also while he was mayor that together with his wife Alice on 18 July 1446 Richard Payn purchased a royal pardon. Curiously, he was described in it as a husbandman, perhaps harking back to the lawsuits of his youth. C67/39, m. 8. Payn took part in Salisbury’s elections to the Parliament of 1449 (Feb.), and in the dispute between two grocers and fellow members of the council of 24, William Swayn* and Richard Balteswell, he was chosen as an arbiter by the latter and helped make an award to settle their differences in November 1451. He was still attending civic assemblies in August 1452, but is not recorded doing so thereafter. First General Entry Bk. 408, 446, 454. Payn had been named as an executor by Henry Man*, the former mayor and six times MP for Salisbury, and by Juliana, the widow of Thomas Hardyng of Salisbury, but both appointments led to litigation over the testators’ estates. Indeed, Juliana’s brother-in-law, William Hardyng, a London draper, accused him of failing to hand over the best items of jewelry, clothing and silver plate, as he had been promised by his brother. CP40/738, rots. 382, 451; C1/14/39.

Payn probably died before 1455, as he was not recorded in the detailed rental drawn up that year of property in Salisbury belonging to Bishop Beauchamp, although his sometime wife Alice was named among the bishop’s tenants. Her holdings included four tenements, situated in Winchester Street, Endless Street and Ship Street, and a curtilage containing racks for drying cloth woven in the city. Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxvi. 88. She was formally described as a widow in the following summer, when she was sued by the executors of a London grocer for a debt of £7. CP40/782, rot. 61. Richard’s relationship to Edith Payn, a widow who made her will on 23 Sept. 1456, has not been discovered. She asked to be buried next to her late (un-named) husband in St. Edmund’s church, Salisbury, left her daughter Joan and son Thomas her tenements in Chipper Street, and authorized the sale of another in Castle Street for religious services: PCC 8 Stokton (PROB11/4, f. 55). Alice died before November 1458, leaving their only child, Joan, as her executrix. That month Joan made a quitclaim to Hugh Fitzrichard of all personal actions. Salisbury Domesday bk. 3, G23/1/215, f. 2v.