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.
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] Lord Lavington was re-elected as Governor of the Leeward Islands in February 1799, arriving in Antigua on 12 August 1801.
[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.