To my right wurchepfull howsbond, John Paston.
1451
APRIL 16
Right wurchepfull howsbond, I recomand me to yow, prayng yow to wete that the Parson of Oxened[234.2] told me that Wyndham told hym that Sweynnysthorp[234.3] is hold of the Kyng be the therd part or the fourt part of a knyt fye, and ho so ever had the maner of Sweynsthorp, he shuld fynde an armyd man, in tyme of werre in the castell of Norwhic, xl. days to his owyn cost, and that ye shuld pay xxxs. to the Kyng yerly owth of the seyd maner; and it is fond also that your fader shuld a died seysyd, and that ye shuld a entyryd ther in as heyr after your fader dysseys, and that ye shuld be now up on the age of xxx. wynter.
The Trinite have yow in hys kepyng. Wreten at Norwhic, the Friday next a fore Seynt George. —Yowrs, M. Paston.
[234.1] [From Fenn, iii. 84.] The date of this letter depends upon the age of John Paston, who, in November 1444, was found to be twenty-three years old. As he is now ‘upon the age of thirty winters,’ this letter was probably written in 1451.
[234.2] His name was Laurence Baldewar.
[234.3] In 1444, according to Blomefield (Hist. of Norf. iv. 40), a rent-charge out of the manor of Swainsthorp was settled by John and Agnes Paston, the eldest son and the widow of William Paston, the Justice, to find a priest to sing for the soul of the said William in the chapel of our Lady the Great in Norwich Cathedral.
[188]
ABSTRACT[234.4]
Sir John Fastolf to Sir Thos. Howys, at Castre in Flegg.
1451
APRIL 21