The letters following are all probably of the reign of Edward IV., but their dates are quite uncertain.

[Footnote 69-2: [From Paston MSS., B.M.]]

989.

J. PASTON [OF GELSTON] TO RICHARD CROFT

Will not venture to ride in this weather, not being well at ease. Sends three bills of John Calle and Robert Salle's receipts and payments brought by the former. Cannot find the new fermall of Caster here, so he has given the bearer the key of his coffer at Yarmouth. If you would ride with him, I think you will find it there. Agrees to John Wynne's bills, desiring to be allowed 5 for Byshoppis of Yarmouth, and for herring delivered to my cousin Loveday; but John Wynne must not sell my farm barley to pay them, as I wish all the barley in his charge malted for my Lord Mountjoy. I send a warrant for the sheriff to warn the persons in Flegge and Yarmouth impanelled between the King and me to be at Thetford a.s.sizes on Wednesday next. Give it to Simon Garrard.

Norwich, Wednesday.

990.

SIR THOMAS HERT TO HIS WORSHIPFUL MISTRESS, [MARGARET PASTON?]

Giving her an account of the numbers of her sheep and lambs at Sparham from Drayton and Taverham, and those with the shepherd at Heylesdon.

Heylisdon, Thursday before Lady Day the Nativity.[69-3]

[Under this letter is written in a modern hand--'37 Hen. 6,' but this date is certainly too early. Thomas Hert was Vicar of Stalham in 1482.]

[Footnote 69-3: The Nativity of St. Mary the Virgin, 8th September.]

991.

JOHN DOWNYNG TO EDMUND PASTON

Is a simple servant of his mother and miller of Wood Mill. Complains of Will. Sybbeson, whom Edmund Paston well knows to have been 'defawtyf in many other thyngs,' and who embezzles wheat and rye, and prevents him getting any good of a close he holds of Paston's mother.

North Walsham, Thursday before St. Brice.[70-1]

[Some memoranda of receipts are written across the back.]

[Footnote 70-1: St. Brice's Day is 13th November.]

THE PASTON LETTERS

_Edward V._

992

RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, TO LORD NEVILL[71-1]

_To my Lorde Nevyll, in hast._

[Sidenote: 1483 / JUNE 11]

My Lorde Nevyll, I recommaunde me to you as hartely as I can; and as ever ye love me, and your awne weale and securty, and this Realme, that ye come to me with that ye may make, defensably arrayde, in all the hast that ys possyble, and that ye wyll yef credence to ... . . Richarde Ratclyff, thys beerrer, whom I nowe do sende to you, enstructed with all my mynde and entent.

And, my lord, do me nowe G.o.de servyce, as ye have always befor don, and I trust nowe so to remember you as shalbe the makyng of you and yours.

And G.o.d sende you goode fortunes.

Wrytten att London, xj. day of Jun, with the hande of your hertely lovyng cousyn and master,

R. GLOUCESTER.

[Footnote 71-1: [From Fenn, v. 302.] This letter was not a part of the Paston correspondence, but was printed by Fenn in the series as a letter of much historical interest from a copy given him by the Rev. John Brand, secretary to the Society of Antiquaries. The following memoranda accompanied the copy:--

'Extract from an ancient MS. of pedigrees, etc., in quarto, late in the possession of Sir Walter Blackett, Bart., and now the property of John Erasmus Blackett, Esq., Alderman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; p. 333, under t.i.tle of "_A Coppie of some Letters which were found in Rabie Castle after the Rebellion, to shew the fashion ... . of those times_." The above MS. is of the date of James I., though there are several continuations in a more modern hand.

'This copy has doubtless been a transcript of an original letter of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III., and written just before his seizure of the crown.

'Raby Castle is in the county of Durham.'

Fenn adds that it does not appear clearly who this Lord Nevill was. But as the letter was found in Raby Castle after the great rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in 1569, it was evidently addressed to one of that family of Nevills, the heads of which were Earls of Westmoreland. In 1483 the Earl of Westmoreland's name was Ralph Nevill, but he died in the year following, and was succeeded in the t.i.tle by Ralph, son and heir of his brother, John, Lord Nevill, who was slain at Towton. It was this Ralph, then heir-presumptive to the earldom, who is here called Lord Nevill. He had got his father's attainder reversed in 1472, and his t.i.tle of Lord Nevill was recognised. _See_ G. Ele's _Peerage_, viii. 112.]

993

ELIZABETH, d.u.c.h.eSS OF SUFFOLK, TO JOHN PASTON[72-1]

_On to Jan Paston, in haste._

[Sidenote: Not after 1483]

Mastyr Paston, I pray yow that it may plese yow to leve yowr logeyng for iij. or foro days tyl I may be porved of anodyr, and I schal do as musche to yowr plesyr. For G.o.dys sake, say me not nay; and I pray yow rekomaund me to my Lord Chambyrleyn.

Yowr frend,

ELIZABETH.

[Footnote 72-1: [From Fenn, ii. 292.] This is a holograph letter of Elizabeth, d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk, the sister of Edward IV. There can be little doubt that the Lord Chamberlain referred to is the Lord Hastings who has been very frequently mentioned in this correspondence; and if so, the letter cannot be later than 1483, as he was beheaded in that year on the 13th June, by order of the Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester. We may therefore place it for convenience among the letters of Edward V.'s time, though undoubtedly it may be a few years earlier. Facsimiles of the original, both back and front, are given by Fenn. It is endorsed in the hand of John Paston, the younger (certainly not in that of his brother Sir John, as Fenn supposed)--'Littra Ducisse Suff.']

THE PASTON LETTERS

_Richard III._

994