Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, to Sir William Knivet and Others

1061

ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF NORFOLK, TO
SIR WILLIAM KNIVET AND OTHERS³

To my ryght enlyerly and welbelovid frendes, Sire William
     Knevette, Sire John Paston, Sire Robert Clere, Knyghtes, the
     Kynges Attorney, Phelippe Calthorpe, Richard Suthwell,
     Squyers, and to yche of theym.

ELIZABETH, DUCHESSE OF NORFFOLK.

RIGHT entyerly welbelovyd frendys, I comaunde me to
     you. And for as moche as I understande that Sire
     Harry Grey, that is the verry owner and possessioner
of the maner of Ketryngham, is nowe in gret age, and as it is
seide, of right seekely disposicion, and that after his deceasse
the right and title therof shall of right belonge to my right
welbelovid servaunt Thomas Martyn, and his nevewe and
heyre of blood, and his eyre therof by reason of entaylys:—
What the seid Sire Harry entendith to do therin, I knowe
not, but it rennyth in reporte, that he is in purpose to dis-
herite the seid Thomas Martyn therof, contrary to all right
and good conscience. In eschuenge wherof, I desire and pray
you as hertely as I can, that it wull leeke you to be so good
maistyrs to the seid Thomas as, by your wisdams and dis-
crecion, the seid Sire Harry, by you or some of you, may be
moved of conscience and of kyndenesse to his blood to have
regard to the seid right, and not to do eny thyng that shuld
be disheryson to his seid nevewe, and to have the more tender
consideracion to your mocion, for that the seid Thomas is to
dyverse of you of kynne and aliaunce, and to many other
gentilmen within the shere in leeke cas. And for the con-
sideracion that I have, that the seid Sire Harry and Thomas
his nevewe, were of my lordes nere blode, whoes soule Jesu
pardon and assoyle, it were to gret a pete to see hym by dis-
heryson to falle to penury and poverte, wher by your good
exortacion in consideracion of the premissis, and mo odir by
your wisdamys to be remembred, in the lif of the seid Sire
Harry suche inconveniences may be better remadyed; wherin
ye shall not only do an almas dede, and a gret pleasir to God,
but also to me for that blodes sake a singuler pleasir, and
cause me heraftir therather to considir thynge that shall con-
cerne your resonabill pleasir, with Goddes grace, Who ever
kepe you.

     At Erle Soham, this xiiij^ne day of Septembyr.

     ³ [From Paston MSS., B.M.] The writer of this letter was the widow of John
Mowbray, the last Duke of Norfolk of that name, who died in 1475. She survived
her husband many years, and Fenn says, though I know not on what authority, that
she was alive in 1496. Sir Harry Grey, it appears, made his will on the 28th Sep-
tember 1492 (Blomefield, v. 93), and one might imagine this letter was written in the
same month and year. The inquisition upon his death, however, was only taken on
the 26th October, 12 Hen. VII. (1496), and it does not state the day on which he
died. The jurors found Thomas Martyn, who was then thirty years old and over, to be
his kinsman and next heir, but that Ketteringham Hall was devised to the use of his
wife Jane and of others after her death. It is certain, moreover, that this letter could
not have been written before the year 1495 when Sir Robert Clere was knighted; and
that is probably the very year, as Sir Harry Grey was dead at least in October 1496,
and most likely a month or two earlier.                                                                                                            

SEPT. 14

1495
SEPT. 14