Amicabili magistro nostro, Johanni Paston, armigero.
1461
JAN. 31
Ful reverend and worshipful, after all dewe reverence and recommendacion, your pore Preste besecheth humble it plese your good maystirship to understande be this simple bylle that on the Friday next after the Feste of the Conversion of Seynt Poule laste paste I was at your place at Castre to a tolde yow what answer I hadde of Sir Thomas Howis, parson of Blofeld; and in as moche as ye wer not at hoom, I tolde it to my mastras your wyfe; and God thanke her of her jentilnes, she made me grete cher, and mor over a vysed me to sende yow a bille ther of to Lundon. This was his answer, whan I had talked to hym as I cowde in lyke wyse as ye averted me to do. He answered a geyn in these wordes, ‘Nere is my kyrtyl, but nerre [nearer] is my smok.’ And this was his menyng that ye schulde be mor ner us and tender to us than he, and that ye schulde rather owe us good wyl than he, and that we schulde labour rather to yowr maystirship than to hym; and also that good that he had to dispose he had be sette it, and of passel he tolde me he had delyvered the Abbot of Langele fourescor li., wher of, as he seyd to me, ye grutched and wer in maner displesed, not withstandyng ye seyd a geyn to hym ye shulde geve as moche. And he seyd to me ye named the places wher; and therfor he avysed me to labour effectualy to your good maystirship, for ye mych [might] helpe us[251.1] wele. For he seyd ye had moche good of the dede to dispose, what of your fader, God blisse that sowle, what of Berney, and what now of his good Mayster Fastolfe. And as for Sir John Fastolfe, on hoose soule Jesu have mercy! he seyd to me ye had of his good four, four, and four mor than he in these same termes with owte ony summe.
And after all oder talkyngs he tolde me he shulde be with yow at Lundon hastyly, and that he wolde sey good worde to yow to releve our poor place. Sir, I beseche bethe not displesed, for truly and I woste to have your hevy maystership therfor, I had lever it had bene on thoght. And is this that whan Sir Thomas Howes and ye be saunne at Lundon, we myght be so in your good grace, that our place myght be broder to Langele, for that shulde glade us mor than the commission that the Bysshop of Norwich sente us on Thrusday laste paste to gader the dymes, for that is a shrewde labour for us, a grete coste and a shrewe juparde.
Over mor that hy and myghty celestial Prince preserve yow body and sowle, and sende yow coumforte of the Holy Goost wele to performe all your hertis desir in all your materes to his plesaunce, and your wurship, and solace to alle your welle wyllers.
Wretyn at Bromholm, on the Saturday next after the Feste of the Conversion of Seynt Poule laste paste. From your Preste and Bedeman, John, Priour of Bromholm.
[250.1] [From Fenn, iii. 404.] As executor to Sir John Fastolf, Paston must have taken possession of Caister soon after his death. The Duke of Norfolk, however, pretended a title to it, and, as we shall find hereafter, had dispossessed Paston by June 1461. This letter, dated on Saturday after the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, must therefore have been written in January 1461, as in 1460—the only other probable year—that feast (25th January) fell on Friday, and a letter written on Saturday after the feast would not have referred to the Friday after the same feast as a past date.
[251.1] us. The word is no in Fenn’s literal copy, which must be a misprint.
[432]
MARGARET PASTON TO JOHN PASTON[252.1]
A Lettre to J. Paston, ar., from his wife.[252.2]