—— —— to William Paston.
1426(?)
‘Dear and well-beloved Cousin.’—Is in good health, but ill at ease, being informed that she is in debt to Steyard for my lord’s debt, whose soul God assoil, £7 and a pipe of wine. Knew nothing of it in my lord’s life, except of 2 pipes for herself, and one for her mother-in-law, of which she has paid 20s. Since my Lord’s death, Steyard has never asked her for it. ‘For which time, as I was at Jernemouth abiding in the Frere Carmes the time of the pestilence, his wife came unto me,’ asking the writer to be good lady to him; and he asked no more then than the above 3 pipes. He asked no more last harvest when he was sick and like to die, when John of Berneye was present. Thinks, therefore, his asking is untrue. My Lord would have made me or some of his council privy to such a debt. Hopes Paston, whom my Lord made one of his feoffees, will see ‘that ye and I be discharged anemps the King as for the debt of Steyard.’—Dated Castre, the day after the Conversion of St. Paul. Addressed, ‘A mon tres cher et bien ame cousin, Will’m Paston soit donné.’
[This letter is endorsed in another hand, ‘W. Paston, j. feoffatorum et executorum Johannis Rothnale per lit’ Cz. (?)’ It seems, therefore, to have been written by the Lady Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Rothenhale, whose name occurs in [No. 13] in connection with William Steyard of Great Yarmouth. She was the daughter of Sir Philip Branch, Kt., and had been previously married to John Clere of Ormesby. She died at Caister, the place from which this letter is dated, in 1440; and by her will, which was dated at Caister, 16th October 1438, she bequeathed all her goods at Ormesby to her son Robert Clere, and all her goods at Horning Hall, in Caister, to her son Edmund.—See Blomefield’s Norfolk, iv. 35, vi. 392, xi. 210.]
[30.1] [From Paston MSS., B.M.]
whose name occurs in No. 13
corrected by editor from “No. 8”
[16]
ABSTRACT[30.2]
1426–7
Depositions on the —— day of ——, 5 Hen. VI., by Richard Wyoth, executor of Margery, daughter and heir of Edmund Bakon, touching the manor of Gressam which Bakon purchased, temp. Edw III. After the death of two brothers, Margery became sole possessor, and gave it to Wyoth and other executors to perform her will, with proviso that Philip Vache and Eliz., his wife, should have it during their lives, but that the reversion of it should be sold, giving William, son of Robert Moleyns, the first option of purchase. It was accordingly offered to him, but he refused to buy. On the death of said Eliz., however, he bought the manor for 420 marks, and held it two years, when Wyoth re-entered because part of the purchase-money was unpaid. W. Moleyns’s wife, however, induced him to accept security from Thos. Fawkoner, merchant of London, whose daughter the said William agreed that his son should marry, when he came of age; and it was arranged that meanwhile Fawkoner and Wyoth should be jointly enfeoffed of the manor, which was to be given in jointure, if the marriage took effect. The marriage did not take effect, and Fawkoner re-entered upon the manor according to the enfeoffment, but paid Wyoth nothing, till Thos. Chawsers,[31.1] Esq., a kinsman of the said Margery, made him understand that Wyoth might enter on his own portion, and had even a prior right to himself. At length Fawkoner sold his right to Chaucers and Wyoth, and released the manor on security for the payment. Wyoth then said he should have little advantage by the bargain, except in having easy days of payment; ‘et quod dictus Thomas Chaucers, pro bona voluntate quod (sic) erga dictum Willelmum Paston gessit, episcopum Londoni de emptione ejusdem manerii per longum tempus dilatavit, intentione ut idem Willelmus illud emeret si voluerit.’