The Paston Letters
Chapter 293 : WYLLIAM PASTON.[Footnote 120-1: [From Fenn, ii. 158.] This letter was unquestionably w

WYLLIAM PASTON.

[Footnote 120-1: [From Fenn, ii. 158.] This letter was unquestionably written in the reign of Henry VII., and not in that of Edward IV., to which Fenn a.s.signed it. The writer, William Paston, was only born in the year 1459, and was still pursuing his studies at Eton so late in Edward's reign as the year 1479, in the end of which year his eldest brother, Sir John Paston, died. The Sir John Paston to whom this is addressed must therefore be the second son of John Paston, Esquire, who was knighted at the battle of Stoke in 1487, and died in 1503. The year in which the letter was written is, however, still doubtful. I do not find by the Privy Seal dates of Henry VII. that such a progress as is here spoken of was ever carried out. Apparently it was intended that, beginning on Monday fortnight after the date of the letter, the King should occupy a fortnight on the way from London to Norwich, and arrive there on Palm Sunday Eve. The year must therefore have been one in which Palm Sunday Eve fell between the 5th and the 11th of April, and Easter Day between the 13th and 19th April. The earliest year that will suit these conditions is 1489, when Easter fell on the 19th April; and that this was the true date of the letter is made probable by several other circ.u.mstances. In 1489 the King was staying at Sheen during March. A great council had certainly met in the end of the year 1488 about the affairs of Brittany, and is very likely to have prolonged its meetings or renewed them from time to time to the 3rd March following.

Moreover, if our date be correct, it supplies an interesting and highly probable fact with regard to Henry, Earl of Northumberland, the fourth of the line of Percy, who was slain in an insurrection in the north in April following, showing that he was with the King at Sheen in the beginning of March, and had undertaken by indenture to protect the Borders against the Scots, not long before he found himself called upon to put down the King's rebellious subjects in Yorks.h.i.+re.]

[Footnote 120-2: Here follows some account relative to a grant from the Crown, etc.--F.]

[Footnote 120-3: John, Lord Dynham.]

[Footnote 121-1: Not Haveningham in Suffolk, but Heveningham, Hevingham, or, as it is now commonly written, Hedingham, in Ess.e.x, the seat of the Earl of Oxford.]

[Footnote 121-2: 11th April.]

[Footnote 121-3: _See_ vol. ii. p. 110, Note 1.]

[Footnote 121-4: Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Calthorpe, was daughter and coheir of Sir Miles Stapleton.]

[[be thys letter delyvered.

_first italic "d" misprinted as "a"_]]

1032

THE EARL OF OXFORD TO SIR JOHN PASTON[122-1]

_To the righte wors.h.i.+pfull and my righte intierly belovyd Sir John Paston, Knyghte._

[Sidenote: 1489 / MARCH 12]

Righte wors.h.i.+pfull and righte intierly belovyd, I commaunde me to you.

And acording to the Kyng our soverayne Lordis commaundemente late to me addressid, I desire and pray you that ye woll in all G.o.dely haste, upon the sighte hereof, prepare youre selfe to be in a redinesse with as many personnes as ye herbyfore grauntid to do the Kyng servyce in my company diffensibely arayed and therupon so to resorte unto me in all G.o.dely haste possyble upon a day warnyng, horsid and harnessid, to be at the Kynges wayges. And G.o.d kepe yow.

Writen at my castelle of Hedingham, the xij. day of Marche.

OXYNFORD.

[Footnote 122-1: [Douce MS. 393, f. 79.] The date at which this letter was written is uncertain, but it may very probably have reference, like some later letters in this year, to the King's proposed journey northwards, as it will be seen by the last No.

that he intended to have visited the Earl at Hedingham.]

1033

WILLIAM PASTON TO THE BAILIFF OF MAUTBY[123-1]

_To the Baly of Mawlteby._

[Sidenote: 1489]

Mayster Baly, I recomaunde me on to yow, praynge yow that ye woll sende me be Wylliam Kokkys[123-2] berer her of, iiij. n.o.bylles in golde, putt in to the same boxe that thys byll is in, as thow it wer evydens; for I have tolde the masengere that he schulde brynge me nothyng but evydens, for he is in a manere departyng owt of my servyse, wherfore I wold nott he knew so myche of my counsell. And as for the remenaunte, I wellde ze schulde kepe it tyll I come my selfe.

And if Bayard be onsolde, I pray yow late hym be made fatte ageyns the Kynge come in to the contre, what so ever I pay for the kepyng of hym, and I schall wete how goode a corser I schall be my selfe, at my comyng in to the contre, be the grace of G.o.d, Who have yow in kepyng.

Wretyn at Henyngham.

Be your,

WYLLIAM PASTON.

[Footnote 123-1: [From Fenn, iv. 310.] This letter is dated from Heningham, or Hedingham, one of the places which, as we have seen in No. 1031, the King was to have visited on his intended journey northwards in 1489. I have little doubt, therefore, that it was written in that year. The writer, according to Fenn, was William Paston, Sir John's uncle; but it is remarkable that in this same year William Paston, Sir John's brother, writes to him from Heningham, and as the signatures of the two Williams were not very unlike each other, one may fairly suspect that Fenn has here made an error. This suspicion is, moreover, confirmed by the fact that Mautby was the property of Margaret Paston, who died in 1484, and that it could not possibly have descended to her brother-in-law William, though her son William may have had an interest in it.]

[Footnote 123-2: Fenn prints the name 'Hokkys,' but as the reading in the modernised version is c.o.c.ks, I presume this is a printer's error.]

1034

THE EARL OF OXFORD TO EDMUND PASTON[124-1]

_To my right welbiloved Edmond Paston, Esquier._

[Sidenote: Between 1486-9]

Right welbiloved, I grete you wele. And where as certein landes which late were the Lord Scales by t.i.tle of enheritaunce, be discendid to me, and to my welbiloved cousin William Tyndale, it is accordid bitwixt me and my said cousin that the profites of the said landes, shalle neither be taken by my resceivoire nor his, but that an indifferent persone shalle take and resceive the same profittes to the use of us bothe till suche tyme as a resonable particion may laufully be made in that behalf.

Wherfore as wele as I my said cousin, havyng speciall confidence and trust in you, desire and hertly pray you to take the laboure and peyn atte oure costes and charges, to take and resceive the profites of alle the said landes, to oure use and behofe, deliveryng alwey the oon moyte of your receites to my resceivoure, and the other moitee to my said cousin Tyndale, whan so ever the said profites by you so shalle be taken and resceived. Yevyng you full auctorite and power by this my writyng to execute the same.

Written atte Newe Market the vij^th day of Aprill.

OXYNFORD.

[Footnote 124-1: [Douce MS. 393, f. 81.] A portion of the lands of Thomas, Lord Scales, whose widow, Elizabeth, married Anthony Woodville, Earl of Rivers,--and among others the manor called Scales's Manor in Hockwold,--descended after the death of this Elizabeth to William Tyndale, who was knighted at the coronation of Arthur, Prince of Wales, on the 30th November 1489. (See Blomefield, ii. 180, and Leland's _Collectanea_, iv. 250-2.) As this letter must have been written after the accession of Henry VII., when the Earl of Oxford returned from banishment, and before William Tyndale was made a knight, the date is between 1486 and 1489.]

1035

THE SCALES LANDS[125-1]

Edmund Paston, receyvor of the Scalys landes, askyth to be allowed of xij_li._ xij_s._ viij_d._ whiche hangith over his hede in his accompte made bifore Robert Sharp at the Feste of the Pureficacion of our Lady laste paste, for his costes and expenses for two yeres, as hyt apperith in the sayde accomptes.

Item, the sayde Edmund askyth to be allowed for his costes and expenses of this yere, Cxviij_li._ iiij_d._, beside his costes commynge and goynge to this accompte.

Item, for his rewarde of the saide iij. yeres _ad placitum dominorum_.

Whereof ys allowed for his costes by the comaundement of my lorde,

x_li._

Item, allowed by the[125-2]

_Endorsed in same hand as the MS._, Billa Edmundi Paston.

[Footnote 125-1: [Douce MS. 393, f. 80.] It is evident that this doc.u.ment is at least three years later than the preceding, but it is placed here for convenience.]