I am not so sure that Mary Elizabeth Richardson was John Ellis Payne's mother. John Ellis Payne was born in 1828. Simeon A. Payne didn't marry Mary Elizabeth Richardson until 1832 from what I've seen on Ancestry.com. Does anyone know who John Ellis Payne's mother was? From what I gather she might have died in childbirth or soon thereafter. I am descended from John Ellis Payne (3rd great grandfather).