Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Payne, John (d.1647?)
PAYNE, JOHN (d. 1647?), engraver, was one of the earliest exponents of the art of line-engraving in England. He appears to have learnt it from Simon and William Pass [q. v.], and his manner very much resembles theirs. Two of his portraits—those of Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, and Henry Vere, earl of Oxford—are printed in frames engraved by William Pass. Payne had considerable skill in engraving, and many of his portraits and title-pages have great merit. His chief work is the large engraving, done on two plates, of the great ship ‘The Sovereign of the Seas,’ built by Peter Pett [q. v.] at Deptford in 1637. Evelyn in his ‘Sculptura’ extols this engraving, as well as Payne's portraits of Dr. Alabaster, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, and others. Payne, though recommended to the king's favour, was idle, and died in indigent circumstances. This must have been about 1647, as Thomas Rawlins [q. v.] in his ‘Calanthe,’ published in 1648, has an epitaph on Payne, as ‘lately deceased.’ Among other portraits engraved by Payne were those of Bishop Joseph Hall, Bishop Lancelot Andrews, Sir Edward Coke, Hobson the Carrier, Sir James Ley, Christian of Brunswick, &c., and among the title-pages those to ‘The Works of John Boys, D.D.,’ 1629, and to Gerarde's ‘Herball,’ 1633.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (ed. Wornum); Vertue's Diaries (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23070); Evelyn's Sculptura; Strutt's Dict. of Engravers.]