John Payne (fl. 19th century) John Payne was a little known American cartographer and map publisher working in New York and Philadelphia in the last years of the 19th century. He is a somewhat mysterious figure of which little is known, but his work is important as one of the first examples of American commercial cartography. His most important work is the 1798-9 issue of Payne's New and Complete Universal Geography. Click here for a list of rare maps from John Payne. Rare maps by John Payne currently for sale. Rare maps by John Payne in the Geographicus Antique Map Archive.