Plesid your gode Lordship to be remembred how afore this tyme Hugh Wythom hath said he wold be in rest and peese with me, and not to maligne agayn me otherwise than lawe and right wold; that notwithstandyng, upon Munday last past, he and iij. men with him come unto a servaunt hous of myn in Boston, cald William Shirref, and there, as he sete at his werke, stroke him upon the hede and in the body with a dagger, and wondet him sore, and pulled him out of his hous, and set him in prison without any cause resonabull, or without writ, or any other processe shewid unto him; and that me semes longs not for him to do, bot as he says he is endited, and as your gode Lordship knawes wele, I and all my servaunts are in like wise; bot and any man shuld have done hit, it longs either to the shirref or to your baliff as I conceyve, and other cause he had non to him as fer as I kan knawe, bot awnly for the malissiousness that he hath unto me, ne I kan think non other bot it is so. And now yistre nyght my Lord Welles[119.1] come to Boston with iiijxx [four score] horses, and in the mornyng foloyng toke hym out of prison, saying afore all peepll, ‘Fals thefe, you shall be hanged, and as mony of thy maistre men as may be goten’—as your servaunt John Abbot kan report unto your gode Lordship,—and hath taken him away with him to Tatessall, what to do with him I kan not say, bot as I suppose to have him to Lincoln Castell: wherfor I besech your gode Lordship in this matier to be my gode Lord, and it please your gode Lordship to write a letter to the kepere of the Castell of Lincoln, that it liked him to deliver him out of prison undre a sufficient seurety had for him, for and thai may kepe him still be this meyne, thai may take all the servaunts that I have, and so I may do agayn in like wise.
And also, as I am enformed, without he be had out of prison in hast, it will be right gravewis to him to heile of his hurt, he is so sore streken; and if there be any service that your gode Lordship will comaund me to do in any cuntre, plesid you to send me word, and it shal be done to my power with the grace of God, which have you, my right honorabull and wurshipfull Lord, alway in his blessid kepyng. Writen at Kyme,[119.2] upon Wednesday next after our Ladi day the Assumpcion.[119.3]
Also plesid your gode lordship to wit, after this letter was made, there come a man fro Tatessall into my fenne, which owght me gode will, and be cause he wold not be holden suspect, he speke with wemen which were mylkand kyne, and bad theme goo to a preest of myn to Dokdike, and bid him fast goo gif me warnyng how that my Lord Wilughby,[120.1] my Lord Cromwell,[120.2] and my Lord Welles[120.3] proposid theme to set a sessions, and hang the said William Shirref, and thai myght bryng ther entent abowte; and so, as I and your servaunt John Abbot stode to geder, the prest come and gaf me warnyng herof, which I trust for my worship your gode Lordship wold not shuld happen, for it wer to me the grettest shame that myght falle; bot and it plese your gode Lordship to write to all your servaunts in this cuntre, that thai will be redy upon a day warnyng to come when I send theme word, I trust to God thai shal not hang him agayn the lawe, bot I, with help of your gode Lordship, shall be abull to let hit. By your Servaunt, William Tailboys.[120.4]
[118.2] [From Fenn, iii. 282.] This letter is dated by Fenn between 1455 and 1460, but cannot be later than the former of these years, as Lord Cromwell died in the beginning of 1456. It seems, further, beyond a doubt that the Lord Willoughby, mentioned along with him, was Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, who was connected by marriage both with Lord Cromwell and with Lord Welles; and if so the date cannot be later than 1451, as this Lord Willoughby died in July 1452. Indeed, I have very little doubt it is before 1450, as both Tailboys and Beaumont were of the Duke of Suffolk’s party, and it is not likely that the former would have ventured to complain of his powerful neighbours, Lords Willoughby, Cromwell, and Welles after the Duke’s fall, especially as we know that in the beginning of 1450 he was in prison for an attempt to murder Lord Cromwell.
[119.1] Leo, Lord Welles.
[119.2] In Lincolnshire, between Tattershall and Sleaford.
[119.3] 15th August.
[120.1] Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, who married Maud Stephen, a niece of Lord Cromwell.
[120.2] Ralph, Lord Cromwell.
[120.3] Leo, Lord Welles, whose son Richard married Joan, a daughter of Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby.