Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Weymouth Mich. 1411-12, 1421-2.1

Collector of customs and subsidies, Melcombe Regis 28 Feb. 1416-July 1417.

Biography

Having already once served as a bailiff of Weymouth and also as collector of customs in the neighbouring port, William Payn, along with Thomas Payn* and other local men, entered into recognizances for £400 in June 1418, then binding himself to appear before the King’s Council on 8 July to answer concerning the seizure of a cargo belonging to a Flemish merchant, only for it to be agreed in October following that no further action need be taken. It is important to note that when elected for Weymouth to Henry V’s last Parliament, he was again occupying the office of local bailiff. But, otherwise, all that is further known of him is that at Michaelmas 1430 he witnessed a deed in the town.[footnote]

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. E364/184, 194. Were it not for this bailiffship of 1421 and the fact that a William Payn witnessed a conveyance at Weymouth in 1430 it might have been assumed that the man returned was William Payn† (1358-1426) of West Lulworth, esquire (s. of William Payn (d.1388) of the same), who m. (1) Margaret da. and coh. of Nicholas Poyntz and wid. of John Newburgh; and (2) Agnes (d.1429), by which marriages he acquired substantial estates in the shire. He had sat for Wareham in the Parliaments of 1383 (Feb.) and 1385, and continued to be active in the administration of Dorset, as a j.p., coroner and commissioner, right up to his death in 1426. He was also sometime steward of Corfe. He attended the meetings of the county court for nearly all the parliamentary elections between 1407 and 1425 including that of 1421 (Dec.).