Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 05 June 1931
Obituary
Mr J.H. Payne
The Newhill Naturalist
Gentle Scholar.
Picturesque Personality.
The district will miss a familiar and respected figure by the death, which occurred on Saturday, of Mr. John Henry Payne, of Newhill Lodge, Wath-on-Dearne.
Mr. Payne ‘s striking appearance, reminiscent of William Morris with whom he had any tastes in common, his love of walking, which took him to all parts of the district, his wide interests and broad knowledge made him well known in the towns and villages and over the countryside between Barnsley and Doncaster.
Mr. Payne, who would have reached his 74th birthday in July, was the eldest son of Dr. Henry Payne. and was born in Barnsley, coming to the Wath district at the age of seven when his father retired from practice and took up residence at Newhill Hall. His early education was received at the Brampton Academy – where the late Dr. Burman and the late Mr W. H. Gawtress were among his schoolfellows. Leaving Brampton School at the age of eleven he went to the Friends School at Bootham, York, and passed on to complete his training as a technical and analytical chemist at the College of Science, attached to the University of Durham, in Newcastle-on-Tyne.
It was in the North that he obtained his first post, being engaged at a chemical works in Jarrow. In 1892 he married Miss Edith Rank of Jarrow.
Subsequently he secured a managerial post in London, but after three years retired whilst still a comparatively young man and returned to South Yorkshire living in Mexborough from 1901 to 1904.
The latter part of his life was spent at Newhill Lodge where he lived the simple life in which, like Tolstoy, he was a great believer. He spent his time as much as possible in the open air, and would pass whole days away from home , wandering as far afield as Roche Abbey and High Melton on his frequent botanical expeditions.
He was a great geologist and ornithologist and his knowledge was valued by many in the district. Specimens were often sent to him for identification, and he was always willing to pass on the benefit of his studies and observations.
He was in his youth a keen athlete, and at the Friends’ School in York he was a member of both first cricket and football teams. He was also very fond of and was interested in fishing, shooting and riding. He was a proficient Latin and Greek scholar and something of a linguist, being able to speak French, German and some Spanish, and to read Italian. He was a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, a member of the Newcastle Chemical Society, the National Anti-vaccination League, the British Empire Naturalists’ Association for the Preservation of Wild Life Animal and Floral, and of the Peace Society, and was an advocate of international disarmament.
He was in addition a teetotaller, a non-smoker, and an anti-vivisectionist, and for the last 30 years or so had been a vegetarian. Latterly he wore his hair and beard long, for no other reason than he felt more comfortable that way.
As a Quaker he favoured the Friends’ style of dress, and his clothes were made from homespun cloth woven by his daughter on a hand loom which is still in use.
Apart from his interest in natural history Mr. Payne was an artist of some merit, and was also interested in photography open reproducing his pictures in collotype. He was interested in classical music and played the violin. In his younger days he used to enjoy playing at the anniversary services at the Newhill Wesleyan Reform Church.
Suspicious of motors and buses and even trains, Mr. Payne was indeed one of the “old school.” He would always walk in preference to riding and until quite recently would walk to and from Mexborough, while at time he thought nothing of walking to Roche Abbey and back in a day.
He leaves a widow, four daughters and a son, one of his daughters having died only a few days ago.
Mr. Payne had an outstanding personality, charming as it was picturesque. He had a scholarly mind, made keen by incessant and omnivorous study. He was a naturalist of wide learning and experience but he was equally interested in the arts, in religion, in sociology. His mind was too broad, his curiosity too wide-ranging, to be limited by doctrine, dogma, and creed, though he was essentially a religious man.
He was extraordinarily catholic in his tastes and accomplishments. He was a master of the ancient languages and literature, as well as of French and German, and was not unacquainted with Spanish, Italian, and Welsh. He drank deeply of the well of wisdom, and was versed in the literature of the East and the West. Natural history was perhaps his principal study and he was the local oracle whose opinion are eagerly sought and whose verdict was unquestioningly accepted by all who consulted him, and they came from far and near; children came with their elementary difficulties, miners with queer geological specimens, schoolmasters and clergymen took his opinion upon various difficulties or discoveries. The Rev. W. Keble Martin who, while vicar of Wath, wrote a history of the parish, had invaluable help from Mr. Payne.