Benjamin Payne
Birth unknown
Virginia, USA
Death 1832
Temple Hill, Barren County, Kentucky, USA
Burial: Payne Cemetery #2
Temple Hill, Barren County, Kentucky, USA
BENJAMIN PAYNE: Will proved, Barren County (Kentucky) May Court, 1832.
BENJAMIN’s first known marriage was to Anne Martin in Albemarle County, Virginia, June 12, 1784.
After the death of Anne, BENJAMIN married Anne’s sister, "Molley Martin” (Mary “Polly” Martin), in Amherst County, Virginia, April 9, 1789.
BENJAMIN PAYNE and family appear to have been listed in the 1810 Census of Richmond County, Virginia (see Photos), with the daughters miscategorized. Son John was listed as a separate tithable, unmarried, and without a family. Son William was apparently in Barren County, Kentucky, already (see William Payne Memorial), before moving on to Illinois. John would be in Kentucky by 1816, where he married Matilda Bibb in Barren (Monroe, after 1820) County. The remainder of the family moved to Monroe County, Kentucky, ca. 1820-21, which may account for the absence of BENJAMIN from the 1820 Census of either Virginia or Kentucky.
An 1823 letter from James M. Payne to his oldest brother, William, in Illinois gives some interesting details about the family’s move, about 1821, from Virginia to Kentucky (see James M. Payne and William Payne Memorials).
BENJAMIN’s family were Methodists, as attested by the death notice (1857) of “Polly Payne” in the Christian Advocate, a Methodist newspaper published in Nashville, Tennessee. BENJAMIN and Polly were also named as donors (1827) of Bethel M. E. Church of Oleoak, near Glasgow, Kentucky (Simmons, 1997).
In the 1830 Barren County Census, BENJAMIN PAYNE was listed as 80-90 years old. Whether or not this is correct, it’s the closest approximation of BENJAMIN’s age that we have in the two known public records extant (e.g., 1810 Virginia Census: Age 45+). A family Bible has yet to be discovered.
BENJAMIN and Mary “Polly” (Martin) Payne are believed buried in Payne Cemetery #2. The marked gravesite of their son Benjamin M[artin] Payne is there, among other family members, and this cemetery is located within the bounds of their original 900-acre “Salt Peter cave” farm north of Skaggs Creek, purchased from William Jamerson in 1823 (see Mary Martin Payne Photos).
In his Last Will and Testament, drafted August 23, 1831, BENJAMIN bequeathed to Polly the “plantation whereon I now reside containing three hundred acres,” plus an additional “one hundred and two acres of land on the east side of the road leading from Glasgow to Tompkinsville” (Hwy 63, today), which suggests that the plantation was west of the road. BENJAMIN’s bequest to his son, John, further reveals that the family’s homesite was likely in the vicinity of this Cemetery: “To my son John Payne I give and bequeath ninety nine acres of land more or less, binding on [the north of] Skaggs Creek to be taken off the upper end of my tract of land and adjoining the place whereon I now live and to include the Salt Peter cave and to extend eastwardly to [i.e., the west side of] the road leading from Glasgow to Tompkinsville.” John later sold this tract to Nelson Sanders, in 1839 (see John Payne Photos). The saltpeter cave is located on the north side of Skaggs Creek about 1/2 mile south of Payne Cemetery #2, west of Hwy 63.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189864055/benjamin-payne
