PAYNE, HENRY THOMAS (1759 - 1832), cleric and ecclesiastical historian

Baptised 30 November 1759, at Llangattock, Brecknock, son of Thomas Payne, who was rector of Llangattock from 1757 to 1798, and canon residentiary of Wells. He was educated at Oxford (matriculated from Worcester College, February 1777; B.A. as from Balliol College, 1780; M.A. 1784). Ordained deacon, 18 May 1783, at Westminster, he was ordained priest at Abergwili, 19 September 1784, and licensed to the curacy of Lanelli, Brecknock. He became rector of Llanbedr and Patricio, 31 August 1793, and vicar of Devynnock, 13 August 1799; he became prebend of Llanbedr Pains-castle otherwise Bochroyd (Boughrood) 8 June 1799, was collated to the third cursal prebend of the cathedral church of S. Davids, July 1810, was admitted a canon residentiary of S. Davids, July 1814, and installed in the archdeaconry of Carmarthen, 19 June 1829; the statement in Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, that he became vicar of Ystradfellte in 1789 is not confirmed by the ecclesiastical records. He died 22 April 1832, at Crickhowell.

The greater part of archdeacon Payne's researches relating to the history of the diocese of S. Davids is preserved in the two manuscript volumes of his studies on the diocesan statutes. These he entitled 'Collectanea Menevensia' (SD/Ch/B27 and SD/Ch/B28 , now in the National Library of Wales among the capitular records of the diocese of S. Davids). With them should be studied a third manuscript volume by him, this being in the form of a report made to the precentor and chapter on 17 June 1830. There is evidence among other manuscripts by Payne in N.L.W. that Theophilus Jones's Hist. of Brecknock owes very much to Payne's researches; see notes by B. G. Owens, in the article listed below, on the Payne Deposited Manuscripts. Another Payne manuscript (NLW MS 4278C ) is entitled 'A Parochial Visitation of the Deanery of the Third Part of Brecon … 1785.' Other Payne manuscripts in N.L.W. are covered with early British history and antiquities, early Christianity, 'familiar phases in the English and Welsh Languages …,' etc.; NLW MS 6258C and NLW MS 6259C consist of copies of Edward Davies Celtic Researches and the same authors' Mythology … of the British Druids, both with manuscript additions by Payne (see also NLW MS 6467D ). Cwrtmawr MS 101C and Cwrtmawr MS 941C came also from the library of Payne.

Author

• Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Sources

• B. G. Owens, 'Archdeacon Henry Thomas Payne (1759-1832)' in The National Library of Wales Journal, Vol. IV, part 3-4, 210-14

Further reading

• Collectanea Menevensia, Vol. I
• Collectanea Menevensia, Vol. II

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20748835

Published date: 1959

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