Payne family

The collection centers on the Reverend Lea Luquer (1833-1919) and his wife, Eloise Elizabeth (nee Payne) (1834-1894), with material related to earlier and later generations of their family and related families, including Low, Lynch and Pierrepont.

On the Luquer side, the collection refers to Nicholas Luquer (1810-1864) of Brooklyn, N.Y. Luquer owned property in Brooklyn Heights, where he also lived; some material in the collection concerns Nicholas's estate and this Brooklyn property. Nicholas married Sarah Lea Lynch, and they had four children: Lea, Nicholas, Sarah, and Margaret. At least some of the Luquers and Lynchs were buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, which is reflected in the collection.

Nicholas and Sarah's son, Lea, graduated from Columbia University in 1852. He would become the rector of St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal Church in Bedford (N.Y.) in 1866, where he remained until his death. In 1860, Lea married Eloise E. Payne. A rich journal in the collection describes their 1874 trip to Europe. Eloise was the daughter of Thatcher Taylor Payne and Anna Elizabeth (nee Cottrell). Thatcher Taylor was a descendant of John Howard Payne (1791-1852), a poet popularly known for the song, "Home! Sweet Home." Part of the collection concerns financial claims contingent on the line of descent from John Howard. Thatcher T. Payne died in 1863. A significant part of the collection concerns Lea's handling of Thatcher's estate, especially the disposition of properties in New York City, on behalf of Anna. Anna died in 1890.

Lea and Eloise had three children: Eloise P. (1862-1947), Lea McIlvaine (1864-1930), and Thatcher Taylor Payne (1866-1958). Thatcher became president of the Bedford Historical Society in the twentieth century, along with other positions engaged in the history of Bedford and Westchester County. Lea McIlvaine married Ann Low Pierrepont, the daughter of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont II and Ellen Almira (nee Low). Lea McIlvaine and Ann Low had four children; among them was Evelyn Pierrepont Luquer (1900-1983), who was a donor of a portion of this collection. Evelyn married Frances Noble Jones, who donated the largest portion of the collection after her husband's death.

Lea McIlvaine's wife, Ann Low Pierrepont, was the niece of Anna Jay Pierrepont. Anna Jay died in 1940, bequeathing her property to her five nieces and nephews, including Ann Low. This property included the old family home at One Pierrepont Place and its contents. Among the other legatees was Seth Low Pierrepont of Ridgefield, Connecticut, who appears in the collection in connection with documents concerning the disposition of Anna Jay's property.

(Sources: Most of the information was gleaned from documents in the collection. A website with helpful information, especially dates, was http://www.genealogy.com/users/index.html (though it's authoritativeness is uncertain). A brief obituary of Lea Luquer was in the New York Times of June 19, 1919. BHS has several other sources for family information on its library shelves.)

From the guide to the Luquer and Payne families papers, Bulk, 1822-1941, 1822-1980, (Brooklyn Historical Society)