Susannah Ann Payne

Until recently there was no information that pointed to the ancestors of Joseph Payne who died in Bedford County, Virginia and the father of several children who settled in Robertson County, Tennessee.
Several descendants of Joseph and Phoebe Payne submitted their DNA to the Payne DNA project and there was no match to any of the other 250+ participants in the project.
Then in late 2006 a member of the Thomas Warren family of Spotsylvania County, Virginia contacted the project with the information that his DNA was a perfect match to the Joseph Payne DNA participants.
With this information we began a search of how this could have happened and an obscure court document was found in the loose papers of Spotsylvania records wherein in 1724 the couple Thomas Warren and Susannah Payne, were charged with Adultery by the Court.
Thomas Warren was a married man with a family of 10 children and Susannah was single.
We then found in the records of Christ Church Parish of Middlesex County, Virginia the record of the birth of Ann Payne the daughter of Barnett and Elizabeth Payne of Middlesex County.
It has been long speculated that Joseph was a descendant of this Barnett since the name "Barnett" is a name carried down the lines of several of his descendants. But no evidence was found that could point to any of Barnett's sons being the father of Joseph. With the above court case we now know that Joseph's mother was unwed and hence he carried her surname.
We have now concluded that Joseph is indeed the descecndant of both Thomas Warren and Barnett Payne and this is also shown by the names of his children whom he named after members of both of these families. One other point to be made is the maiden name of Phoebe.
For many years it has been stated the her maiden name was "Offill" based on information seen in some unnamed and forgotten book where a brother of Phoebe stated that she married Joseph Payne.
After lengthy research we have never found this book but living near the Warren and Payne families in Spotsylvania County is the family of a William Offill and there are several court records where all these names are found together in regards to other matters of the County.
With the fact that so many of Joseph's descendants never found it necessary to actually have their marriages recorded, it is quite possible that they got this idea from Joseph and Phoebe and because Joseph's mother was never married.

Source:

http://www.tngenweb.org/robertson/family/familyjospayneanc.html