biography text
In 1787 Payne was returned for Huntingdon by Lord Sandwich, to whom he apparently lent money.1VCH Hunts. ii. 46. A close friend of the Prince of Wales, he opposed Pitt. In January 1789, during the Regency crisis, when a change of Administration still seemed imminent, Payne was said to be ‘such a favourite he is to be a lord of the Admiralty, and leans on the Prince as he walks, not the Prince on him’.2Miss Sayer to Mme. Huber, 29 Jan., Auckland Corresp. ii. 279. No speech by Payne is reported 1787-90.
He died 17 Nov. 1803.