[374]
ELIZABETH POYNINGS TO AGNES PASTON[135.1]
To my right worshypfull moder, Agnes Paston.
1459
JAN. 3
Right worshipfull and my most entierly belovde moder, in the most louly maner I recomaund me unto youre gode moderhode, besekeyng you dayly and nyghtly of your moderly blissing, evermore desiryng to her of your welfare and prosperite, the which I pray God to contynw and encresce to your herts desyre. And yf it lyked your gode moderhode to here of me and how I do, at the makyng of this lettre I was in gode hele of body tanked be Jesu. And as for my mayster, my best beloved that ye call, and I must nedes call hym so now, for I fynde noon other cause, and as I trust to Jesu non shall; for he is full kynde unto me, and is as besy as he can to make me sur of my joyntor, wherto he is ibounde in a bonde of mlli. to you mother, and to my brother John, and to my brother William, and to Edmund Clere,[136.1] the which neded no such bond. Wherfore I beseke you, gode moder, as our most synguler trost is yn your gode moderhode, that my maistr, my best beloved, fayle not of the C. marc at the begynnyng of this terme, the which ye promysed hym to his mariage, with the remanent of the money of faders wille; for I have promytted faithfully to a gentilman, called Bain, that was oon of my best beloved suertees, and was bounde for hym in CCli., of which he reherseth for to ryseyve at the begynnyng of thys terme Cxxli., and yf he fayle therof at this tyme, he wille clayme the hool of us, the which were to us to grete an hurt; and he con not make an ende with noon of hys other suertees withoute this seyd sylver, and that con my brother John telle yow wel i nough, and it lusteth hym to do soo, and in all other thyngs. As to my Lady Pool,[136.2] with whom I sojerned, that ye wul be my tendr and gode moder that she may be payde for all the costes doon to me before my maryage, and to Christofre Houson, as ye wrote unto my brother John that I shuld have ben so; and that it plese your gode moderhode to yeve credence to William Worcestr. And Jesu for his grete mercy save yow.
Written at London, the Wendysday the iij. day of Janyver. By your humble doughter, Elyzabeth Ponynggs.
[135.1] [From Fenn, iii. 328.] The writer of this letter is Agnes Paston’s daughter Elizabeth, for whose marriage, as we have seen, there had been a good deal of negotiating in past years (see Nos. 93, 94, 236, 250, 252), and who has now become the wife of Robert Poynings. As the 3rd of January, the day on which this letter is dated, was a Wednesday, the year must be 1459. The 3rd of January did not fall on a Wednesday again till 1470, by which time Elizabeth Paston was no longer the wife of Robert Poynings, but his widow, for he was killed at the second battle of St. Albans on the 17th Feb. 1461.
Final sentence changed by editor in Errata; see also note 154.3 in Volume II. Original text:
. . . by which time Elizabeth Paston and Robert Poynings must have been married several years, as will be seen by No. 126 preceding (vol. ii. p. 154, Note 3).
[136.1] Edmund Clere was the second son of John Clere, Esq. of Ormesby, and died in 1463.