Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paye, Henry
PAYE, HENRY (fl. 1405–1415), sea captain, appears to have belonged to Poole. In 1403 he was sent to Calais to aid in settling some Flemish claims, and in August 1404 he was directed to prepare to meet a threatened French invasion. In 1405 he was associated with Lord Berkeley in command of a fleet levied for the defence of the Channel, with the special object of preventing the French from sending assistance to Owen Glendower. They succeeded in landing a strong body of men in Milford Haven, but there their fleet was attacked by the English under Berkeley and Paye, and fifteen of their ships burnt. A strong reinforcement which was being sent to the French in Wales was met at sea, and fourteen ships laden with military stores were captured. Paye afterwards ravaged the coast of France, and is said to have brought home 120 vessels laden with iron, salt, oil, and wine. The French soon obtained assistance from Spain, and a combined squadron of French and Spanish galleys came into the Channel. So far as can be made out from the confused geography, they sacked Looe, judged Falmouth too strong, were beaten off from Plymouth, and again from Portland. They then came to Poole, which the Spanish chronicler describes as belonging to a knight called Arripay—Harry Paye—who scours the seas as a corsair with many ships. This ‘Arripay came often upon the coast of Castile, and carried away many ships; he scoured the channel of Flanders, so that no vessel could pass that way without being taken; he burnt Gijon and Finisterre, and carried off the famous and most holy crucifix from Santa Maria de Finisterre, and much more damage he did in Castile, taking many prisoners, and exacting ransoms; and though other armed ships came there from England, he it was who came oftenest.’ In revenge for Paye's ravages in Castile, the Spaniards now resolved to land and burn Poole; but after a sharp fight, in which a brother of Paye was slain, they were driven back to their ships. They afterwards went to the Isle of Wight, and, meeting no good success there, returned to France. Paye's knighthood seems to have been conferred on him by the Spanish chronicler. On 19 July 1414 he was paid eight marks for going to Calais to report on the state of the garrison.
[Southey's Naval Hist. ii. 15, 16, 27 (quoting Crónica del Conde D. Nero Niño); Nicolas's Royal Navy, ii. 374–81, 463; Annales Henrici IV, pp. 386–8, 415; Walsingham's Hist. ii. 272–5, and his Ypodigma, pp. 416, 421; Capgrave's Chron. p. 292; Rymer's Fœdera, viii. 304; Nicolas's Privy Council, i. 234; Wylie's Henry IV passim.]