William Payne & Sons, Charleston, South Carolina

3/16/2021

I would like to give a warm welcome today to our newest contributor Margaret Seidler. Margaret is a native of Charleston, South Carolina. She is retired now after a career in leadership development and organization management.

Historical Street Marker, Broad Street, Charleston,South Carolina. With thanks to Margaret Seidler.

After a lifetime of believing that my family was not involved in slavery, a deeper investigation of my family tree led to the discovery that I am a descendant of John Gordon Torrans of County Derry, Ireland (1702-1780), a partner in the shipping and shipping agent firm of Torrans, Greg and Poaug on Bay Street.
Torrans, Greg and Pouag brought many Ulster people to the Carolinas, then later expanded their operation to include the transportation of enslaved Africans into Charleston.
In 1791, Torrans' daughter Maria Margaret (1772-1827) married William Payne (dec. 1834). Payne was a son of servants to the Butler family from Cloughrenan, County Carlow, Ireland, He arrived in Charleston about 1786, accompanying their son, Edward Butler, the nephew of Major Pierce Butler. At first, Payne worked as a clerk for Pierce Butler but by 1803 he had started a brokerage business. He was later joined by his sons John William and Joshua. William Payne and Sons, became the largest auction house in Charleston engaged in the sale of thousands of enslaved people in the domestic slave trade. My research to date has focused on uncovering these transactions in historical newspaper advertisements.

Excerpt from the research undertaken by Margaret Seidler, Charleston, South Carolina.

The attached pdf. includes my research on William Payne & Sons to date and also my email address if you would like to contact me.

margaret_seidler_auction_research_of_sales_apr_2020__1_.pdf
File Size:	1744 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Margaret Seidler: Domestic Slave Trading in Charleston 1800-1832 (13 Oct. 2020)
youtu.be/i3xE07VCax0

Note
If you would like to learn more about Margaret's research, the above talk was one she gave to local historians and tour guides in Charleston, Oct 2020.

6 Comments

April L Jones

1/29/2022 11:15:41 am

I believe my ancestor is William Payne about this time frame but i have no proof. I would love to chat with you.

Martine Brennan link

2/1/2022 04:45:04 am

Hi April, I just saw your message and emailed you. Martine

Carrie Chenault link

4/1/2022 09:48:37 am

He was later joined by his sons John William and Joshua. William Payne and Sons, became the largest auction house in Charleston engaged I’m so thankful for your helpful post!

Martine Brennan link

4/7/2022 03:22:43 am

Many thanks Carrie. It gives us great encouragement to know that you found this helpful. Martine

Richard Mackenzie link

9/9/2022 02:30:40 pm

William Payne and Sons, became the largest auction house in Charleston engaged in the sale of thousands of enslaved people in the domestic slave trade. I’m so thankful for your helpful post!

Martine Brennan link

9/12/2022 08:12:06 am

Thank you so much for your encouragement Richard. We are very grateful to Margaret for all the work she did and continues to do. And it is great to have this co-operation between Ireland and Charleston. Martine

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Authors

Martine Brennan (Curator) While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this work, mistakes may occurr. If you offer a correction, please provide documentation or a link to an historical document. Many thanks. MB
Contributors
Cindy Hines
Margaret Seidler
Stacy Ashmore Cole
Steve Harper
John G M Sharp
Brian Sheffey
James Fitzgerald

Enslavement to citizenship: African Americans in Irish Slaveholder records by Martine Brennan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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