1479
FEB. 2
My worschypfull mastresse, I recomende me un to yow, and thanke yow of yowr approvyd ensewryd gyudenesse evermore shewde, and so I pray yow to contenew. I have resyvyd yowr letter, and undrestonde yowr desyre, wyche ys ageyns the lawe for three causys. Oon ys, for yowr son Watre ys nott tonsewryd, in modre tunge callyd Benett; a nodre cause, he ys not xxiiij. yeer of aghe, wyche ys requiryd complete; the thyrde, ye owte [he ought] of ryzte to be preyst within dwelmothe after that he ys parson, wyth owte so were he hadd a dyspensacion fro Rome be owre Holy Fadre the Pope, wyche I am certen can not be hadde. Therfor I present not yowr desyre un to my lorde,[6.2] lest ye [he] wolde have takyn yt to a dysplesur, or else to take a grete sympylnesse in yowr desyre, wyche shulde cause hym, in suche matres as xall fortune yow to spede with hym a nodre tyme, to shew un to yow the rigur of the lawe, wyche I wolde be lothe; therfor present a nodre man abyll. Haske consell of Mr. John Smythe, and sease of yowr desyre in thysse partey, for yt ys not goodely nether Goddely; and lete not yowr desyre be knowyn, aftyr my avyse. Be not wrothe, thowe I sende un to yow thusse playnyly in the matre; for I wolde ye dede as wele as any woman in Norfolke, [that ys, wyth rygth],[6.3] to yowr honor, prosperite, an to the plesur of Godde, with yowre and all yowres, Ho have yow in Hyse blessyd kepyng.
From Hoxne on Candylmasse Day. William Pykynham.[7.1]
I sende yow yowr presente agen in the boxe.
[6.1] [From Paston MSS., B.M.] Walter Paston, to whom this letter refers, died in August 1479. This letter was probably written in the beginning of the same year. The date certainly cannot be 1478, if No. 926 has been assigned to the right year, for it will be seen that the writer was then in London, and so much occupied that he had little prospect of visiting Norfolk for some time.
[6.2] James Goldwell was consecrated by Pope Sextus IV. Bishop of Norwich in 1472. He resided much at his manor of Hoxne, where he died in 1498.—F.
[6.3] These words are struck through with the pen.
[7.1] William de Pykenham became Chancellor of Norwich and Archdeacon of Suffolk in 1471, and was also some time Rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk, where he built the grand gate or tower before the parsonage. He died in 1497.—F.
[942]
WILLIAM PASTON, JUNIOR, TO JOHN PASTON[7.2]
To his worchepfull broder, John Paston, be thys delivered in hast.