1489
Mayster Baly, I recomaunde me on to yow, praynge yow that ye woll sende me be Wylliam Kokkys[123.2] berer her of, iiij. nobylles in golde, putt in to the same boxe that thys byll is in, as thow it wer evydens; for I have tolde the masengere that he schulde brynge me nothyng but evydens, for he is in a manere departyng owt of my servyse, wherfore I wold nott he knew so myche of my counsell. And as for the remenaunte, I wellde ze schulde kepe it tyll I come my selfe.
And if Bayard be onsolde, I pray yow late hym be made fatte ageyns the Kynge come in to the contre, what so ever I pay for the kepyng of hym, and I schall wete how goode a corser I schall be my selfe, at my comyng in to the contre, be the grace of God, Who have yow in kepyng.
Wretyn at Henyngham. Be your, Wylliam Paston.
[123.1] [From Fenn, iv. 310.] This letter is dated from Heningham, or Hedingham, one of the places which, as we have seen in [No. 1031], the King was to have visited on his intended journey northwards in 1489. I have little doubt, therefore, that it was written in that year. The writer, according to Fenn, was William Paston, Sir John’s uncle; but it is remarkable that in this same year William Paston, Sir John’s brother, writes to him from Heningham, and as the signatures of the two Williams were not very unlike each other, one may fairly suspect that Fenn has here made an error. This suspicion is, moreover, confirmed by the fact that Mautby was the property of Margaret Paston, who died in 1484, and that it could not possibly have descended to her brother-in-law William, though her son William may have had an interest in it.
[123.2] Fenn prints the name ‘Hokkys,’ but as the reading in the modernised version is Cocks, I presume this is a printer’s error.
[1034]
THE EARL OF OXFORD TO EDMUND PASTON[124.1]
To my right welbiloved Edmond Paston, Esquier.
Between 1486-9
Right welbiloved, I grete you wele. And where as certein landes which late were the Lord Scales by title of enheritaunce, be discendid to me, and to my welbiloved cousin William Tyndale, it is accordid bitwixt me and my said cousin that the profites of the said landes, shalle neither be taken by my resceivoire nor his, but that an indifferent persone shalle take and resceive the same profittes to the use of us bothe till suche tyme as a resonable particion may laufully be made in that behalf. Wherfore as wele as I my said cousin, havyng speciall confidence and trust in you, desire and hertly pray you to take the laboure and peyn atte oure costes and charges, to take and resceive the profites of alle the said landes, to oure use and behofe, deliveryng alwey the oon moyte of your receites to my resceivoure, and the other moitee to my said cousin Tyndale, whan so ever the said profites by you so shalle be taken and resceived. Yevyng you full auctorite and power by this my writyng to execute the same.