For 250 years, from 1650 until 1900, St. Kitts and to a lesser extent Nevis, played an important role in the history of the Payne family.

St. Kitts was first inhabited about 2000 years ago by the Arawaks from South America. They inhabited most of the West Indies islands by AD1500. The Arawaks were followed by the Caribs, a more warlike people, who drove out the Arawaks. They called St. Kitts "Liamuiga" - the fertile island.

Christopher Columbus discovered St. Kitts in 1493. Captain Thomas Warner arrived from England in 1622, and found the Caribs welcoming. Warner returned to England, and, with the backing of a London merchant, Ralph Merrifield, and a handful of settlers, left England in 1623 and arrived on St. Kitts on the 28th of January 1624. A few French settlers had already arrived and they planted tobacco. In 1625 Warner returned to England and was appointed Governor of St. Kitts.

In 1626 the French and British united (a rare event) and massacred the Caribs, which event was the first of a long series of disasters to befall the inhabitants of St. Kitts.

The French and English settlers then drew up a Petition Treaty - the French took the North End of the island known as Capesterre, the English the central part known as Basseterre, and the peninsula to the south with the salt ponds was to be for use by both parties. The Treaty was signed on the 13th of May 1627 and ratified, but not until 1662.

In 1629 the Spanish attacked the settlers, who abandoned the island, but returned as the Spanish were in no position to occupy and defend their conquest.

Captain Warner died in 1648 and has a well-maintained tomb in the churchyard at St. Thomas, Middle Island.

In 1648 Dutch refugees from Brazil arrived with sugar and, within twenty years, tobacco production ceased. The great clearing of the island for sugar production commenced in the 1650's and it was at this time that the first Payne settlers arrived on the island.

The first planters relied on indentured Europeans, but then found it was more advantageous to use slaves bought from Africa. In 1660 the population of St. Kitts was about 6,000 people divided equally between blacks and whites.

In 1666 the French invaded the British part of the island, but this dispute was settled the following year. There were more disputes in 1689/1690, and in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, the French gave up all claim to the island. At this time, many of the early settlers, some of whom had been indentured, spread throughout the Caribbean, which gave rise to St. Kitts being described as the "Mother Colony of the West Indies".

Once the island was unified, land was either given away or sold by auction in 200 acre plots in 1726. It was during this period that Charles Payne, born 1682, was to make his fortune as a planter.

The population of St. Kitts in 1713 was approximately 13,000 people of which 3,000 were European. Fifty years on the population was 20,000 including 2,000 Europeans.

The 1758 map of St. Kitts by Baker has as subscribers Ralph Payne (1706-1762), Sir Gillies Payne (1720-1801), Stephen Payne, Willett Payne and John Payne.

In 1782 and 1805 the French again attacked the island and peace was finally restored in 1815, but by this time the heyday of the Plantocracy was over.

Credit to Mr. J.G. Payne