1491
[SEPT.]
Right reverent and worshipfull sir, and oure veray lovyng and curteys good mayster, we recomaund us on to you in as feythefull wyse as on oure part aperteynith; and hertely we thanke you for your labour and letter, whiche ye sent to us be your servaunt, be the whiche we wer asserteynid of the Kynges pleasure, and to acomplyshe the same, we with the assistens of youre maistirship wyll put us in oure devoir.
We were at your manoir of Castir to have sen your maistirshyp, but ye were departyd as well from Yermouth yistirday, as this day from Castre. We wold have ben joyous to have seen your maistirship, if our fortune so had ben.
Sir, we be enfourmyd that ore old special good Lord of Oxford, in whom we founde as gret favour be the mediacion of your maystirship, as ever we had of any creature, as we have wryting to shewe, in recumpens of whiche at all tymes sethyn hise lordshyp hathe had our preyeris; and now we wold have waytid upon hise lordshyp, but your maystirship knowith well we may not be absent on Mychilmesse Day for dyverse consederacions. Wherfore we beseke your good maystirshyp, ye lyke of your jentilnesse, to recomaund us unto our seyd good lord, and to make our exkuse to hym, and to do hyse lordshyp [to be] presentyd with a porpeyse, whiche we send yow be the brynger of thys; and if we had any othyr deyntes to do hym a pleasure, we wold, that knowyth God, Whom we beseke of Hyse infenit mercy to preserve the Kyng our Soverayn Lord, and oure seyd good lord, and you, and all the frutys of you from all adversite.
Youre loveres and bedmen, the old Baliffes of Yermouth, and the newe Balyffes that now shalbe.
[138.2] [From Paston MSS., B.M.] ‘Several ordinances,’ says Fenn, ‘respecting corporation business, made by the men of Yarmouth, through Sir John Paston and Lord Oxford’s attention to them, received the King’s assent by his Attorney-General in 1491. It was for their activity in those matters, I presume, that this letter of thanks, etc. was addressed to Sir John.’ The time of year appears by the letter itself to be about Michaelmas.
[1049]
THE EARL OF OXFORD TO SIR JOHN PASTON[140.1]
To the right worshipfull and my right intierly welbelovyd counceillor, Sir John Paston, Knyght.
About 1491(?)
OCT. 20
Right worshipfull and right intierly welbelovyd counceillor, I comaund me to you. And where as I late have receyved your writing, wherby I . . . . . . the demeanyng of Richard Barkeley and his shipp as other, I have ta . . . . . . . . of hym to be redy at all tymes to answer to all suche thynges as can be l . . . . . . . . . he demeanyng. I woll therfor that ye suffre hym, his men and shippys, . . . . . . . . d as for a last of hering and an half, whiche I undirstond by hy . . . . . . of his, I woll that ye delyver hit to the countroller of my howshold. A . . . . . . . o put undyr suertie all suche hering so takyn or revid by the carveyll of . . . . . . . any other. And God kepe you.