Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/253

 PAYNE

PAYNE

America in 1622, and settled in Yarmouth, Mass., in 1639. He was educated in Boston, Mass., and became an assistant instructor of elocution with his father. He succeeded his brother, William Osborn Payne, as a clerk in a counting house in New York city in 1804, and there clan- destinely edited the TJiespian Mirror,

1805-06. He attend- ed Union college at Schenectady, N. Y., 1806-08, where he ed- ited and published a college paper called the Pastime. After his mother's death in 1807, he gained the consent of his father, who had lost all his property, to his ap- pearance upon the stage, this having been his ambition from child- hood. He made his debut as Young Norval at the Park theatre. New York, Feb. 24, 1809, and subse- quently appeared in Boston, Providence, Balti- more and Philadelphia, as Zaphna in " Mahomet," Octaviau in "The Mountaineers," Salem in " Bar- barossa," Tancred in " Sigismonda," and Romeo in " Romeo and Juliet." He traveled through the south and north and was everywhere greeted as the juvenile wonder. He appeared in New York, March 1, 1811, playing Edgar to George F. Cooke's Lear; in Boston, Mass., in March 1812, as Hamlet to Mrs. Duff's Ophelia, and then in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He played as Young Norval at the Drury Lane theatre, Lon- don, England, June 4, 1813, and afterward traveled through the principal cities of England and Ire- land, retiring from the stage in 1817. He resided in France and England for nearly twenty years and was engaged chiefly as a playwright, selling his first play, " The Maid and the Magpie," a translation from the French, to the managers of Covent Garden for £100. He wrote, translated and adapted more than sixty plays, among them, " Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin," " Mahomet," "Married and Single," "Two Sons-in-Law," " Spanish Husband," " Paoli," Judge and the Attorney," " White Maid," " Post Chaise," " Mrs. Smith and Boarding School," " Clari, or the Maid of Milan," (in which occurs his song of "Home, Sweet Home," and through which everyone con- cerned except Payne realized a fortune), and " Charles II." " Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin," produced at the Drury Lane theatre with Ed- mund Kean in the title role in 1818, was a success and became a favorite role of Cooper, Forrest, and the elder Booth, as did " Charles II." with

Charles Kemble. He returned to the United States in 1832 and received several benefits from members of the theatrical profession in various cities. He lived among the Cherokee Indians for a time and became an adviser of the chief Ross in his difficulties with the United States ; was arrested with the chief by the Georgia state guards, and was influential in securing the treaty that resulted in the removal of the tribe to the west. He became interested in several projects in the United States, but none of them prospered, and in 1841 he was appointed U. S. consul to Tunis, Africa, from which post he was recalled in 1845. He resided in Italy, Paris and London, 1845-7, returned to New York city in 1847, and lived at Washington, D. C, until April, 1851, when he was reappointed to Tunis and served until his death. Mr. Payne never married. On June 5, 1883, his body was removed from the cemetery of St. George, Tunis, where a monument had been erected to his memory, and reinterred in Oak Hill cemetery, Washington, D.C., while a thou- sand voices sang his " Home, Sweet Home." His portrait hangs on the walls of the Corcoran gallery at Washington, a colossal bust was erect- ed in Prospect park, Brooklyn, N.Y., and a monu- ment marks his grave. In the selection of names for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Ameri- cans, New York university, October, 1900, his name in " Class A, Authors and Editors " received four votes. See : " Life and Writings of John Howard Payne " by Gabriel Harrison (1875, 2d ed., 1885), and " John Howard Payne : a Biographical Sketch", by Charles H. Brainard (1885), He died in Tunis, Africa, April 9, 1852.

PAYNE, Sereno Elisha, representative, was born in Hamilton, N. Y., June 26, 1843; son of William Wallace (1814-1863) and Betsy (Sears) Payne ; grandson of Elisha, founder of the village of Hamilton and a native of Connecticut, and Esther (Douglass) Payne, and of David, a pioneer of Cayuga county, and Thankful (Irish) Sears, and a lineal descendant of Stephen Hopkins, May- flower, 1620. Sereno Elisha Payne attended the Auburn academy, and was graduated from Roch- ester university in 1864. He studied law at Auburn ; was admitted to the bar in 18G6, and practised in Auburn in partnership with John T. M. Davie, 1869-70, and alone, 1870-82. He was married, April 23, 1873, to Gertrude, daughter of Oscar Fitzhugh and Arietta (Terr}-) Knapp of Auburn, N. Y. He was city clerk, 1867-68 ; super- visor, 1871-72 ; district attorney, 1873-79, and presi- dent of the board of education, 1879-82. He was a Republican representative from the 26th dis- trict in the 48th congress, 1883-85, and from the 27th district in the 49th congress, 1885-87. He was defeated for nomination for the 50th congress by Newton W. Nutting (q.v.), whom he succeeded