Rustic Manners, Circa 1838

    The East Hampton Historical Society’s winter lecture series, In Their Own Words: Voices From East Hampton’s Past, continues tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Clinton Academy with “The Rustic Manners of Old East Hampton: John Howard Payne’s 1838 Recollections of His Boyhood.”

    “John Howard Payne came to East Hampton sometime between 1832 and 1834,” Hugh King, the director of the Home, Sweet Home Museum, told the village board at its meeting on Friday. “While he was here, he took notes. He wrote a whole article about what East Hampton was like in the 1830s.”

    Andrew Botsford, an actor and director with the Hampton Theatre Company, will read Payne’s recollections. In the program’s second part, Evan Thomas and Samantha Ruddock will portray a scene from Payne’s operetta, “Clari, the Maid of Milan,” in which the song “Home, Sweet Home!” was first performed. Payne wrote the song’s lyrics.

    “Payne’s 1838 recollections of visiting his aunt in East Hampton are extremely rich,” Richard Barons, the historical society’s executive director, said last month. He called Payne’s writings “somewhat romantic, but certainly realistic.”

    The series will continue on March 28 with “An Eagle Eye on East Hampton’s Main Street: Cornelia Huntington’s Vivid Diary, 1820-1860,” featuring Barbara Borsack in the role of Miss Huntington. It will conclude on April 25 with “From Cradle to Grave: The Rev. Nathaniel Huntting’s Extraordinary Records of East Hampton, 1696-1753,” with Mr. Thomas as Reverend Huntting and Mr. King narrating. Free refreshments are served before the lectures, all of which begin at 7 p.m.