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G.M. & A.W. Speir records on the estate of William Payne

Call Number

MS 3057

Date

1842-1888 (bulk 1873-1888), inclusive

Creator

G.M. & A.W. Speir, Counsellors at Law

Extent

1.46 Linear feet in 4 document boxes

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

G.M. & A.W. Speir, Counsellors at Law in New York City represented Jemima Payne, widow and executrix of William Payne, as her probate attorneys. This collection documents the 12-year process of closing William Payne's estate along with other juridicial proceedings that unfolded along the way. It contains a variety of legal documents related to the estate and some records created by William Payne during his lifetime.

Biographical / Historical

William Payne (1811-1873), was born in Aylsham England and moved to New York where he was a successful merchant tailor. He and his wife, Jemima Payne, resided at No. 324 West 18th Street, Manhattan, New York. William Payne died on 31 July 1873 designating Jemima Payne as executrix. William Payne had a previous marriage to Sarah Payne who died in 1860. William, Jemima, and Sarah Payne are all buried at the same plot in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

In addition to the properties in New York City he also owned a farm in Monmouth County, New Jersey and land parcels in New York State and Michigan. Payne's will designated specific sums for several relatives, some of whom resided in England. The sales and auctions of his assets, along with the procedures to disperse the proper amounts to relatives domestically and abroad, added to the complexity of settling the estate. The estate was settled in 1885, 12 years after William Payne's death.

Gilbert M. and Archibald W. Speir were New York based lawyers and had a law firm that was once located at 49 William Street and later moved to 42 Wall Street. They represented Jemima Payne as her probate attorneys and in court cases related to the estate settlement. One well-documented case was against James Sutherland, who had familial ties with the Paynes, regarding an ownership dispute of a 29th Street rental property. William Payne and James Sutherland were co-owners of the building at one point, but there are papers showing Payne later bought Sutherland's portion from him.

William Payne's relatives in England included a brother James Payne, whom predeceased him. At the time of William's death, he was the designated executor to James's estate, which had not yet been finalized. Although James Payne resided and died in England, Gilbert M. Speir took over as administrator of his estate after William Payne's death.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by subject matter, retaining the original connections among documents as formed by the firm of G.M & A.W. Speir.

The documents were received by N-YHS in their original condition, tri-folded into several bundles tied together with ribbon. Each bundle held documents related to a particular aspect of the Payne case. Most of these bundles held only one or a few individual documents. Seven bundles were more extensive, comprised of one or more "sub-bundles" each holding documents on some aspect of a particular bundle's overall subject matter. The processing archivist opened all of these bundles, flattening the tri-folded documents. In order to retain the original connections among documents, the archivist did the following, as reflected in the container list below:

The content of each bundle was placed in its own folder; all folders include documents from one and only one bundle. For example, the folder designated in the container list as Box 1, Folder 1 includes all the documents from one particular bundle; Box 1, Folder 2 includes the documents from another bundle; and so on.

For "sub-bundles" that comprised an overall bundle, a consistent root folder number is used to link them, followed by a decimal number indicating each individual sub-bundle and its relation to the whole. For example, in Box 1, Folders 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 hold the loose documents and four bundles that were found tied together; Folder 3.3.1 holds the content of the sub-bundle found within the bundle designated as folder 3.3 in Box 1. There are seven such multi-level bundles in the collection.

The folder labels/titles were transcribed from G.M. & A.W. Speir's original labels on the bundles. In instances where the bundles were not labeled, the processing archivist created titles that are designated by text within [brackets].

The date ranges shown for each folder are based on the dated material they contain. Many of these folders also hold undated material, which is not specifically indicated. Undated material may fall outside of the indicated date range. "Undated" is only used for a folder's date range when there is no dated material within it. There was no overall original order to the various bundles. The processing archivist sequenced them in rough chronological order and by related subject matter.

Scope and Contents

The records in this collection were kept by G.M. & A.W. Speir, Counsellors at Law. The majority of the documents were created after William Payne's death in 1873 and used to settle his estate, while some were created during his lifetime. These include two accounting and stock ledgers kept personally by William Payne during the course of his business from 1847-1873. There are substantial records collected and presented for Jemima Payne's court case against James Sutherland and documents Speir used to finalize James Payne's estate. The collection includes deeds, wills, correspondence, inventories, contracts, financial receipts, power of attorney documents, mortgage agreements, hand-drawn property maps, schedules, account records, legal filings, and case documents. The geographical locations covered in these documents include New York City, Mt. Vernon, NY, Berrien County, Michigan, and Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Use Restrictions

This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day.

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: G.M. & A.W. Speir records on the estate of William Payne, MS 3057, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift from Arthur Stowe, 2018

Collection processed by

Ariana Heinsdorf

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:10 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Processed by archival intern Ariana Heinsdorf in June 2018.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024