Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 17 



Frances Payne, ^'^ first cousin to Sir Ralph Payne, who was 

 also at one time Governor of ihe Leeward Islands, and who 

 on October ist, 1795, was created Lord Lavington. Of him 

 one may read in old books of travel that when residini^- on 

 his estate in the West Indies he was a great " stickler fcjr 

 etiquette " and a firm upholder of distinctions of rank antl 

 colour. He would never take a letter or parcel from the 

 hands either of negro or half-bred ; a pair of golden tongs 

 being used for ihe better protection of his nobility. His 

 family, for many years settled in Jersey, claimed descent 

 from the Plantagenets, and he was justly vain of his lineage. 

 His black servants were never allowed lo wear shoes or 

 stockings, and when he drove abroad in state the calves of 

 the footmen behind his carriage, nicely polished with butter, 

 shone like jet.'^ In spite, however, of his haughtiness, the 

 slaves on his estate seem to have been well treated, and this 

 is more than could be said of a good many English slave- 

 owning planters in the Leeward Islands. A traveller^ who 

 visited Antigua in those days writes that on vSir Ralph Payne's 

 estate " out of upwards of five hundred as fine slaves as any 



in the island, there is not even ten salt-water 



negroes;"^ the meaning of which is that, the slaves being 

 well cared for, there was little need of buying^ new stock to 

 replenish losses. 



You will pardon this digression. Maria was, as I have 

 already said, the daughter of William W^oodley and Frances 

 Payne; she was the third and youngest daughter of this 

 union, '^ and w^as born in England on November 4th, 1772, 



3a See Footnote 103. 



'^ Aiiii(ju(i inid ihe Antirjuans [Anonymous], vol. i. (1844). 

 p. 137. 



5 John LiifCman, who was resident in Antigua from JNIay Gth, 

 1786, till August 1st, 1788. 



6 A Brief Account of ihe Island of Antigua, by John Lullnian 

 [1788], p. 127. 



7 Maria Woodley's brothers and sisters were as follows : — 

 William : 6. January 23rd. 1762 ; d. 1809, in the West Indies ; he 



married twice and had issue by both marriages. 

 John: h. June 20th, 1766; Captain of the Leda frigate, which was 



