Robert Payne (d. 1593) was an English planter who settled in Munster, Ireland and became an advocate of the plantations of Munster.
Payne was a projector[1]: 64 who started promoting schemes in Nottinghamshire for the production of Jersey wool for stockings and woad as a dye. In this he had the backing of Francis Willoughby.[2]
For his Munster venture, he recruited 25 business partners in his project, each of whom received 400 acres. He was accompanied by five farmers, fourteen freeholders, forty copyholders and twenty five cottagers and labourers. He took 1,600 acres for himself and his family and also managed the estates of absentee landowners. Payne maintained his connection with Willoughby whilst in Ireland. Willoughby was a sleeping partner in a project aimed at establishing an ironworks in Kinalmeaky, to be run by an English ironmaster and using woods which Willoughby had already bought nearby.[2]
In 1590 he was appointed the agent of Phane Becher, a London businessman who was an undertaker for Munster. However, when Becher arrived in Kinalmeaky he discovered faulty accounts and other misconduct and sacked Payne and took a suit out against Payne, which led to him being put in the Tower of London in 1592. He died the following year.[2]