Volume Iv Part 16 (1/2)
Be zow[r] bede man,
R. C. V. C.
[Footnote 82.1: [From Fenn, iv. 128.] In the preceding letter Sir John Paston seems to have been at home; in Letter 552, we find that he had left home without leave. It is very probable, therefore, that the present letter was written in the interval between them, seeing that the writer complains of Sir John being kept at home.]
[Footnote 82.2: This Lady Chamberlayne was Anne, daughter and sole heir of Sir Robert Herling, Knight, by Jane, daughter and heir of John Gonvile, Esq. Her first husband was Sir William Chamberlayne, Knight of the Garter, a renowned and valiant soldier, who died in 1462. She was at this time his widow, and inherited from her father a very considerable fortune.
She afterwards married Sir Robert Wingfield, and after his decease she became the wife of John, Lord Scroop of Bolton.
By the name of Lady Scroop she founded and endowed a Fellows.h.i.+p in the College of Gonville and Caius at Cambridge, originally founded by an ancestor of her Ladys.h.i.+p's.
She was born in 1426, and was alive in 1502.
At the time this letter was written she must have been nearly forty years old, when Sir John Paston could not have been much above twenty.--F.]
[[College of Gonville and Caius _editor's error for ”Gonville” alone (John Caius was born in 1510)_]]
551
MARGARET PASTON TO JOHN PASTON[83.1]
_To my ryght worchipfull hosbond, John Paston, be thys letter delyveryd in hast._
[Sidenote: 1463 / NOV. 13]
Riht worchepfull husbond, I recommand me to you. Please you to wete that I was at Norwic this wek to purvey suche thyngs as nedythe me ageyns thys wynter; and I was at my modder, and wille I was ther, ther cam in on Wrothe, a kynnysman of Elysabet Clers, and he sey your dowter, and preysyd hyr to my moder, and seyd that she was a goodly yong woman; and my moder prayd hym for to gett for hyr on good mariage yf he knewe any; and he seyd he knewe on shuld be of a CCC. mark be yer, the wyche is Sir John Cley son, that is Chamberleyn with my Lady of York,[83.2] and he ys of age of xviij. yer old. Zyf ye thynk it be for to be spok of, my moder thynkyth that it shuld be get for lesse mony nowe in thys world than it shuld be her after, owthyr that j. [_one_], or sum other good mariage.
Item, I spake with Master John Estgate for Pekerynes mater after your entent of the mater of the letter that ye sent home, and he seyd to me he shuld write to yow howe he had don ther in; and so he sent you a letter, the wyche was sent you be John Wodows[84.1] man with other letters.
As for answer [of] other mater, Daubeney tellythe me he wret to you.
I be seche Alle myghty G.o.d have you in Hys kepyng. Wretyn at Caster, the Sonday next after Seynt Marteyne.
Be your
M. PASTON.
[Footnote 83.1: [From Fenn, iv. 88.] I have found no letters of Margaret Paston dated from Caister before the year 1463; but I am inclined to think that this and the letter following both belong to that year. The latter, being addressed to Sir John Paston, at least cannot be earlier, and my reasons for believing it to be of that very year will be seen in the note to it (p. 84, Note 2). It is just possible that this letter may be of a different date, but considering that both were written in November, and both of them certainly between the 12th and the 19th, and that in both Margaret Paston not only dates from Caister, but speaks of Daubeney as being with her, the presumption, I think, is pretty strong that they are of the same year.]
[Footnote 83.2: Cecily, d.u.c.h.ess of York, widow of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and mother of Edward IV. She died in an advanced age, at her castle of Berkhamstead, in May 1495, and was buried near her husband, in the Choir of the Collegiate Church of Fotheringhay, in Northamptons.h.i.+re.--F.]
[Footnote 84.1: John Wodehouse, Esq. of Kimberley, son of the renowned John Wodehouse, Esq., who gained so much honour at the battle of Agincourt; he died in 1465, and lies buried in Kimberley Chancel.--F.]
552
MARGARET PASTON TO SIR JOHN PASTON[84.2]
_To my welbelovyd son, Sir John Paston, be this deliveryd in hast._