Ralph Payne, 1st Baron Lavington KB PC (19 March 1739 – 3 August 1807) was a British politician and Governor of the Leeward Islands.
Following the completion of his time at Christ's, Payne returned to St Kitts where he was "elected a member of the house of assembly and unanimously voted speaker.
It was during his time as governor that he became the patron of artist Thomas Hearne who painted several landscapes depicting events on the Leeward Islands.
He became a supporter of Fox following the end of the war in America, although his political career was restricted for a period due to the increasing influence of William Pitt who became prime minister in 1783.
[citation needed] He found it difficult to re-establish himself in the British political system with a sharply reduced income from his plantations on the Leeward Islands.
[citation needed] On 1 September 1767 at St George's in Hanover Square, London, he married Frances Lambertine Christiana Charlotte Harriet Theresa de Kolbel, the daughter of a German nobleman, without issue.
He died without children and in a dire economic situation, leaving his wife, Lady Lavington, to sustain herself on an annual income of just £300; an extremely low amount for the widow of a peer and relatively influential politician, although it would have allowed her to keep a servant.
Courtney, Lord Lavington's "career mirrored the meteoric rise and downfall of absentee sugar planters in Britain.