1461
MARCH 1
Please it you to wytte that it is lete me witte by on that owith you good wyll that there is leid awayte up on you in this cuntre, yf ye come here at large, to bryng you to the presence of syyche a Lord in the north as shall not be for your ease, but to jopardie of your lyf, or gret and importable losse of your goods. And he that hath take up on hym this enterprise now was undr-shireff to G. Sayntlowe. He hath gret favour herto by the meanes of the sone of William Baxter that lyth beryed in the Grey Freres; and, as it is reported, the seid sone hath geve gret sylver to the Lords in the north to bryng the matier a bowte, and now he and alle his olde felaweship put owt their fynnes, and arn ryght flygge and mery, hopyng alle thyng is and shalbe as they wole have it. Also it is tolde me that the fadr of the bastard in this cuntre seid that now shuld this shire be made sewir for hym and his heires hens forward, and for the Baxsteris heyres also, wherby I conceyve they thynke that they have none enemy but you, &c.
Wherfor like it you to be the more war of your gydyng for your persones saufgard, and also that ye be not to hasty to come in to this cuntre til ye here the world more sewer. I trowe the berar of this shall telle more by mowthe, as he shall be enfourmed of the rewell in this cuntre. God have yow in His kepyng.
Wretyn in hast, the secund Sunday of Lent by candel light at evyn. By yours, &c. M.
[252.1] [From Fenn, iii. 412.] ‘This letter,’ says Fenn, ‘has no direction, and lest it should be opened, the paper which fastens the seal is, along the edge, marked with lines by a pen, which communicate with the latter (qu. with the letter?), by which means the receiver might easily have discovered any attempts to have opened it, as the lines would not then have exactly coincided again. On the back of it, but in a later hand, is written, “A lettre to J. Paston, ar., from his wife.”’
Fenn considers, I think with great probability, that this letter was written ‘just before the important crisis that finished Henry’s reign, and placed Edward on the throne,’ when Margaret of Anjou was expected in London after winning the second battle of St. Albans. Giles Saint Loe was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1458.
[252.2] This title is taken from an endorsement in a later hand.
[433]
JOHN DAVY TO JOHN PASTON[253.1]
On to my Maystyr Pastone, be this lettre deliveryd.
Ryth wurchopful Sere, I recomaund me on to you. And iff it lyke you I have spokyn with Bussard, and demaundyd hym iff he had ony evydens, dedys, or copyis, or ony other evydens of ony place or off ony lyflod that longget on to my mayster,[253.2] and seyth, Nay, be is feyth, and be is trowthe, for, if he hadde, he wold send hem on to you with a good wyl; for he seyth it xud don hym non ese. And, Ser, iff it plese you I askyd hym if he knew ony evydens that he had delyveryd on to William Wossetyr, bill, or deds, or ony other evydens that xuld longgyn on to ony purchas or off ony lyfflod on to my maystrys, and he seyth, Nay trewly; for he seyth the last tyme that he wrot on to William Wusseter, it was be ffor myssomyr, and thanne he wrot a cronekyl of Jerewsalem, and the jornes that my mayster dede whyl he was in Fraunce (that God on his sowle have mercy!); and he seyth that this drow more than xx. whazerys [20 quires ?] off paper, and the wrytyng delyveryd on to William Wursseter, and non other, ne knowyth not off non other be is feyth. Be your man, J. Davy.