Payne, John Howard

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

John Howard (1791-1852), the author of Home, Sweet Home. He was born in the heart of New York City, June 9, 1791. Part of his boyhood was spent at East Hampton, Long Island , and part in Boston. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in a New York counting house. He attended Union College two years. From earliest boyhood he had a passion for the stage. In 1809 he took the part of Young Norval in the Park Theater, New York. During the winter of 1812-13 young Payne spent the season with his troupe in London, where he worked over a French play, calling it The Maid of Milan. The play itself is of no particular importance, except that in it appeared the song, Home, Sweet Home, which has made its author immortal. Payne lived for some years in London, numbering among his friends both Coleridge and Lamb. He wrote a number of plays, some of which made his managers money; but Payne himself was always burdened with debt. In 1832 he took up his residence again in New York. In 1841-5 he was United States consul at Tunis, Africa, and again, from 1851, he held the same position until his death in that far away land, April 10, 1852. Payne was by turns an actor, playwright, editor, poet, and consul. He was a sort of houseless, homeless wanderer. His remains were brought home in 1883. He lies in the old Oakdale cemetery in Georgetown, opposite the city of Washington.