| Share page |
|
84 HISTORY OF EAST GRINSTEAD.
in early times, to become in the sixteenth century, and long thereafter to continue, ironmasters of some note and considerable landowners in the parish and surrounding district, till, in the year 1661, we find them applying for, and obtaining, a grant of arms from the Heralds' College, duly issued to " Edward Payne, Richard, Robert, Charles and Henry, his brothers, the sons of Mr. Edward Payne, late of East Grinstead, in the County of Sussex, deceased." The arms and crest then assumed by the family appear on several of the monuments in the chancel. Much of local interest might be recorded of this quiet, undistinguished family, but enough has been said to suggest how long and how closely successive generations of the old stock continued to identify themselves with their native parish.
The male line of this particular family of Paynes died out in East Grinstead upon the death of Charles Payne, of East Grinstead and Newick, Esq., in 1734, but his only surviving daughter and heir, Miss Anna Payne (1732-1797), married, in 1760, Gibbs Crawfurd, of Saint Hill, J.P., a Clerk of H.M. Ordnance and M.P. for Queenboro', in Kent, thus merging in the Saint Hill estate the bulk of the old Payne possessions in this and the surrounding parishes. Mr. Gibbs Crawfurd (1732-1793) was son and heir of John Crawfurd (1694-1763), of Saint Hill, Messenger to the Great Seal, who came into Sussex from Ardmillan, co. Ayr, about the year 1725, and shortly afterwards built the original house at Saint Hill, of which there may be seen a water-colour sketch, dated 1733, among the Burrell MSS. in the British Museum. By his wife Anna {nee Payne) Mr. Gibbs Crawfurd left two sons, viz., Charles Payne Crawfurd (1765-1814), of Saint Hill, J.P., Paymaster of Widows' Pensions and Barrister-at-Law, and Thomas Gibbs Crawfurd (1768-1832), of Paxhill Park, Lindfield, J.P., an officer in the Royal Horse Guards (Blues).
It was during the lifetime of the late Mr. Robert Crawfurd (1801-1883), of Saint Hill, J.P., D.L., only child and heir of Charles Payne Crawfurd, that the family estate of Saint Hill, including, as we have seen, |
||