Richard Paynter

Role: First husband of Jean Telfer
Born: ~1838 — Cornwall, England
Died: 7 February 1869 (aged 30) — St. Kitts Creek, pleurisy
Buried: Kapunda area

Richard Paynter was born in Cornwall, England, the son of Richard Paynter of Calstock. He emigrated to South Australia where he worked as a labourer at Chain of Ponds.

He married Jean Telfer on 12 September 1859 at the Chain of Ponds Parsonage, solemnised by John Kither and witnessed by her father Francis Telfer and Henry Whiting. Jean was several months pregnant at the time.

After their first child Thomas was born, the family moved to Koppio near Port Lincoln where Richard worked as a shepherd for Jean's cousin James Telfer. They later returned to the Chain of Ponds area and then to St. Kitts between Kapunda and Truro, where Richard became the local school teacher — a change brought on by his failing health.

Richard died of pleurisy at the age of 30, leaving a widow and six living children unprovided for. His daughter Thirza Paynter (1867–1869) — born 3 July 1867 at St Kitts Creek — died at Finniss Point on 22 March 1869, six weeks after her father. Jean was pregnant with their last child, Dinah Flavel, who was born that July.

Source: From the Borders to the Bush — Chapter on Jean/Jane Telfer

Family Stories

Richard Paynter was born in Calstock, Cornwall, the son of Richard Paynter, who died in January 1856 aged 39 after "a protracted affliction." Richard the younger emigrated to South Australia and worked as a labourer at Chain of Ponds. On 12 September 1859, at just 19 years old, Jean Telfer married 21-year-old Richard Paynter at the Chain of Ponds Parsonage — a different setting from her sisters, who were married in their father Francis's home. Jean was several months pregnant at the time. After their first son Thomas was born, the family moved to Koppio near Port Lincoln, where Richard worked as a shepherd for Jean's cousin James Telfer. They later returned to the Chain of Ponds area and eventually settled at St. Kitts, between Kapunda and Truro. There, as Richard's health began to fail, he made an unusual career change — from shepherd to school teacher. The book From the Borders to the Bush records that he died of pleurisy on 7 February 1869 at St. Kitts Creek, aged just 30, leaving his widow and five children unprovided for — six, as the family record shows: the youngest, Thirza (born 3 July 1867), died at Finniss Point on 22 March 1869, only six weeks after her father. An in memoriam notice was placed in a local newspaper. His last child Dinah Flavel was born at Finniss Point on 18 July 1869, five months after his death.

(From the Borders to the Bush, p.16)

Sources

• Source: From the Borders to the Bush — Chapter on Jean/Jane Telfer
• Source: Genealogy SA — Marriage Registrations (member index), `PAYNTER, Richard × TELFER, Jean — 12-Sep-1859 — Talunga — 39/232` — Father of groom: Richard PAYNTER; Father of bride: Francis TELFER — accessed 17 Sep 2026
• Source: Genealogy SA — Death Registrations (member index), `PAYNTER, Richard — 07-Feb-1869 — Age 30 — Angaston — 34/401` — accessed 17 Sep 2026
• Source: Genealogy SA — Death Registrations, `PAYNTER, Thirza — 1869 — 34/365` — accessed 17 Sep 2026
• Source: Stirring the Bones — "Richard Paynter & Mary Pearce(?)" — independent researched compilation citing SAGHS/SA records and Trove press notices; "9/2/1869 - A Richard Paynter died at St Kitts Sth Aust (Truro area), aged 30"; "12/9/1859 - Richard Paynter … married Jane Telfer at Chain of Ponds"; "14/5/1866 - Elizabeth married John Ash Osborn at Wesleyan Chapel Kersbrook (Sth Aust Marriage Index 1842-1916 ref Bk67 p115)"; "2/1/1856 - 'At Ward Farm, Chain of Ponds, on the 17th instant, aged 39, Mr Richard Paynter (late of Calstock Cornwall) after a protracted illness.'" — accessed 17 Sep 2026
• Source: A Telfer Family Tree (Supplement to From the Borders to the Bush, 2008), p.70 — accessed 17 Sep 2026