Montgomery County KyArchives Biographies.....Payne, Jilson March 3, 1767 - 1825
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marvin Allen http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00032.html#0007973 February 16, 2015, 5:43 pm

Source: See biography
Author: Marvin Allen

A Biography of Jilson PAYNE (1767 – 1825)

Kentucky State Legislator, Plantation Owner and Baptist Leader

Introduction – Edward and Ann PAYNE were not typical of most of the families
that migrated to the Kentucky wilderness in the late 1700s.  They belonged to
generations of slave owning gentry of Fairfax County, Virginia, not on the same
scale as George WASHINGTON at Mt. Vernon in the same county but influential land
owners nonetheless. 
After the Revolutionary War ended, Edward and Ann sold their plantation “Hope
Park” and moved their family and slaves to Fayette County, Kentucky. Two of
their grown sons also moved their families, as well. Edward’s brother Henry
moved, too, along with Richard and Ann (WISDOM) ALLEN.

Edward PAYNE held a number of positions in Fayette County, including Magistrate
of Fayette County Court and Fayette County Sheriff, besides his involvement in
the local Baptist churches.

While Edward’s father William had remained faithful to the Church of England,
even belonging to the same church as George WASHINGTON, Edward and Ann had
become affiliated with the Ketocton Regular Baptist Association of northern
Virginia in 1766. Their move to Kentucky, like so many others, was no doubt
influenced by Virginia’s persecution of members of the Baptist faith or actually
any religion outside the Anglican Church of England.

Jilson PAYNE was born to Edward and Ann (CONYERS) PAYNE 3 Mar 1767 at "Hope
Park", Fairfax Co., Virginia. He was 18 at the time of the move to Kentucky in
early 1785. The Payne family settled on Town Fork a smaller creek off Elkhorn
Creek a few miles from Lexington.

On February 19, 1789, twenty-one year old Jilson married sixteen year old
Dulcinea HARRISON at Lexington. The HARRISON family was another prominent
Bluegrass family. Jilson’s brother William PAYNE married Dulcinea’s sister
Mildred HARRISON.
Jilson’s parents owned a number of large tracts of property in central Kentucky,
including the 1,000 acre Lulbegrud Creek tract, where Jilson and Dulcinea
settled. Jilson PAYNE owned 38 slaves with most of them belonging to five
families. By 1802, Jilson’s slaves had finished clearing the land and building
Jilson and Dulcinea’s home, Mt. Pleasant. 

No doubt most of the Blacks listed in the front of the Lulbegrud church’s
minutes belonged to Jilson PAYNE and James FRENCH.
Jilson and Dulcinea PAYNE were received as members of the church Saturday, April
16, 1803 by letter from the Baptist church in Mt. Sterling. At that same
meeting, Jilson PAYNE and John TREADWAY Jr were instructed to revise the minutes
and orders of the church.

On July 16th, 1803 Brother Jilson Payne was added as Trustee to those formerly
appointed for the purpose of building a new meeting house.
We find this entry in the minutes March 18, 1804 “There having been a charge of
intoxication exhibited against Brother Edward Williams - it is therefore
directed that Brethren Jilson Payne and Anthony Griffin wait on him and cite him
to attend next church meeting.”

William and Mildred PAYNE moved next door to another family-owned tract. William
helped organize the region's first Calvinistic Regular Baptist churches. Around
1802 they sold this 350 acre property to James and Keziah FRENCH, yet another
prominent area family with large land holdings. Many early land records show the
property was originally entered in the name of James FRENCH. Their daughter
Keziah married James PREWITT.
Dulcinea and Mildred’s brother Micajah HARRISON and his wife Mary had moved to
the Mt. Sterling settlement, where Micajah became the first circuit and county
court clerk when the new county of Montgomery was formed in 1797. All early land
and probate records bear his signature.

Thus the families of PAYNE, FRENCH, HARRISON and PREWITT and others were
interconnected and had much to do with the development of early Montgomery County.
These families were of the ‘Calvinistic’ Regular Baptist persuasion and were
soon at odds with the Separatist Baptists who had also migrated to early
Montgomery County. While the Regular Baptists tended to be larger land and slave
owners, even living in fine brick homes such as Mt. Pleasant, the Separatists
tended to be tenants and smaller land owners living in rough-hewn cabins.

The story of the log that split the Lulbegrud church apart might be indicative
of the relations between these two groups. Jilson PAYNE instructed his slaves to
cut down a large tree near the Lulbegrud church to use for his own purposes
which created hard feelings among the Separatist members of the church. 

Never mind that Jilson had donated the land the church was built on; the result
was the Regular members started meeting at one end of the church while the
Separatist members met at the other end of the same church.

We don’t know how this uncomfortable matter was resolved since neither faction
apparently wanted any official mention of the incident in the church’s minutes.
Besides his engagement in official Baptist proceedings as moderator of North
District Association and other layman duties, Jilson was the local school
trustee, one of the county’s three judges of the Quarterly Court and Captain of
the Montgomery County Militia. Some records list him as Colonel Jilson PAYNE.

During the early 1800s, the Lulbegrud church building also served as the local
school house with Baptist preacher David Barrow as the school master.

Jilson also represented Montgomery County in Kentucky’s second Constitutional
Convention in 1799 and was elected to the lower house of the state legislature
serving until 1803. From there he was appointed to the state senate and served
in that capacity until 1808.
His parents Edward and Ann both died in 1806 in Fayette County at ages 80 and 78
respectively.

Jilson and Dulcinea’s only child, Ann Holland PAYNE, was born February 5, 1812
at Mt. Pleasant.

Dulcinea died August 15, 1821 at 50 years of age and is buried in nearby Prewitt
Cemetery with Jilson. Sometime during the next four years, Jilson married Ann
Michie. Little is known about her background, although we can assume she was a
member of one of the local Baptist churches.

Jilson PAYNE died in 1825 at the relatively young age of 58 and is buried in the
Prewitt Cemetery within view of his beloved Mt. Pleasant. He updated his will
for the last time on August 12, 1825, and it was probated in Montgomery County
court on October 3rd. 
He willed equal shares of Mt. Pleasant to his second wife, Ann Michie PAYNE, and
his daughter, Ann Holland Payne. In a manner not unlike the story of the log
that split the Lulbegrud church, he laid out a boundary line through the house
itself, permitting his widow to occupy one side and his daughter the other side
of the house. Nothing is known of the basis for this arrangement.

In any case, Ann and her stepmother Ann Michie soon sold the Mt. Pleasant to
James PREWITT, who had married James FRENCH’s daughter Keziah in 1824. The
cemetery within sight of Mt. Pleasant where Jilson PAYNE is buried is called the
Prewitt Cemetery, probably because James PREWITT’s grave marker is the largest
one there.

Ann Michie PAYNE moved to Lexington where she died in 1849. Jilson PAYNE’s only
child, Ann, married at age 14 William JOHNSON and had a son Albert who became a
Louisville police chief and a daughter Dulcinea who married wealthy Louisville
businessman Thomas COLMAN. 

Compiled by Marvin Allen, February 2015

Sources: 
Kentucky Court and Other Records, Volume I & II, Mrs. William B. Ardery, 2003
Raccoon John Smith: Frontier Kentucky's Most Famous Preacher, John Sparks, 2005
Lulbegrud Baptist Church Minutes 1793-1804, transcribed by Marvin and Kathy
Allen, 2009
‘stauff’ database, Rootsweb, Richard Stauff, 2014


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