John Payne was a Missionary Bishop from the Episcopal Church

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 to Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

, and the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia.

Early life

Payne was born in 1815 in Westmoreland County, Virginia

Westmoreland County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 16,718 people, 6,846 households, and 4,689 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 9,286 housing units at an average density of...

. He was the son of John Payne and Francis (Morris) Payne, both of Virginia. He graduated from the College of William and Mary

College of William and Mary

The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...

 in 1833 and from the Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary

Virginia Theological Seminary , formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is the largest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States. Founded in 1818, VTS is situated on an campus in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles from downtown Washington, DC. VTS...

 in 1836. Following his graduation, Payne was ordained deacon on July 17, 1836 at Christ Church

Christ Church (Alexandria, Virginia)

Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, is an Episcopal church built from 1767 to 1773 by John Carlyle.The church was designed by James Wren in the colonial style, and frequented by such notables as George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and Philip Richard Fendall I...

 in Alexandria

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

, Virginia. He married Anna Matilda Barroll in 1837, and they both spent the next five years as missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 in Africa, primarily serving the colony of African-American ex-slaves living around Cape Palmas

Cape Palmas

Cape Palmas is a headland on the extreme southeast end of the coast of Liberia, West Africa, at the extreme southwest corner of the northern half of the continent. The Cape itself consists of a small, rocky peninsula connected to the mainland by a sandy isthmus. Immediately to the west of the...

. Payne returned in 1841 to be ordained priest.

Missionary bishop

On July 11, 1851, Payne was consecrated Bishop of Cape Palmas and Parts Adjacent in West Africa. He was the 52nd bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Bishops William Meade

William Meade

William Meade , was a United States Episcopal bishop.The son of Richard Kidder Meade , one of George Washington's aides during the War of Independence, he was born near Millwood, in what is now Clarke County, Virginia. He graduated as valedictorian in 1808 at the college of New Jersey ; studied...

, Alfred Lee

Alfred Lee (bishop)

Alfred Lee was an American Episcopal bishop. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard in 1827, and after three years practicing law in New London, Connecticut, he studied for the ministry, graduating from the General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1837...

, and John Johns

John Johns

John Johns was the fourth Episcopal bishop of Virginia.-Early life and education:Born into a prominent political family in New Castle, Delaware, John Johns was born in 1796. He was the son of Chief Justice Kensey Johns III, and grandson of Governor Nicholas Van Dyke of Delaware.In 1815, Johns...

. He spent the next twenty years in Liberia, before returning to the United States in ill health in 1871. During Payne's tenure, the Episcopal Church built five churches, two asylums, and a hospital, and ordained twenty priests. As an outgrowth of Payne's suggestion that a theology school be built in Liberia, the Liberian legislature incorporated Liberia College in 1851. During his time as bishop, Payne's wife died and he remarried, in 1858, to Martha Jane Williford of Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, another missionary.

The House of Bishops accepted Payne's resignation in 1871, and he died three years later at his home, "Cavalla," in Westmoreland County.