Outline his Life: From Ian Caldwell: b.1869, trained as a solicitor but went off to Canada as a fur trapper and married a chorus girl. The marriage was soon a failure. He worked at fur trapping and intended to save enough money to return to England and live with his unmarried sister, Eva, with whom he had a good relationship. He had almost saved enough but injured his back when he dived from a bridge to rescue a drowning child and had to use up his savings when he was hospitalised as a result of his injury. He never left Canada and later died by being run over by a truck.

Ian's notes conflict with what Marion Paynter told me. She confirmed that Ernest went to Canada and later lived in a hut in a forest in Washington state (USA) where he lived with his dogs. However she records that he came home to Alnwick around 1910 to a great welcome, when everyone was amazed that it only took him two weeks to travel there from the west coast of the USA.

In Aug 2017 Connie Sanders kindly provided the following obituary for Henry Ernest Paynter in The Independent Record from Helena, Montana, USA on June 11, 1938: [Corrections by me in italics!]

"Englishman's 20 Hounds Follow Master in Death: Malta, June 10 -- Twenty hounds, his only companions for years, followed their master, Henry Ernest Paynter, in death. Paynter, killed in an automobile accident on the highway near Lakeside, was buried in the local cemetery after services at the Little White church. The Rev. Torry officiated. County officials killed the dogs.
Paynter came to Great Falls in 1911.

He was born at Aloumouth [might have been Alnmouth; more likely Alnwick], England, June 16, 71 [68] years ago. HP was admitted as solicitor to the Supreme court in 1888 and practiced law in England for seven years. For 20 years he lived a solitary existence on the shores of Lake Bowdoin, trapping and harvesting wild hay. At times he had as many as 50 dogs, which he sometimes used to hunt coyotes.

A brother, E. C. [Edwin Colean or Jum] Paynter of Westbank, B. C., attended the funeral. There are seven sisters [more likely six as Winnie probably moved to Canada before 1938] and one other brother In England. For many years his family was unaware of Paynter's whereabouts.

Marion Paynter told me (in 2001) that Ernest and Jum trained as lawyers but were made to work for their father for nothing, revolted and "fled to freedom" in Canada. She adds that according to Jum, Henry and Henrietta argued incessently about money - and that suitors visiting the girls had no idea of the parlous state of the family's finances. Henrietta never had enough money for housekeeping or for the entertaining that they did, nor for the charities that she supported.

Note: Burke's Landed Gentry (1972) shows "Henry Ernest Paynter b.1869 d. young". I wonder why the conflicting information.