Petition of John Herlyng of Basyngham to Lady Paston

678

ABSTRACT¹

PETITION OF JOHN HERLYNG OF BASYNGHAM TO ‘LADY’ PASTON

     Requests ‘her Highness’ to confirm some grants of her late husband to him
of land at Basyngham. William Swan claims, and has taken from him 2 perches
of ground in breadth near his (Swan’s) gate, which has always been parcel of
Herlyng’s tenement of Greyve’s during his and his father’s time. John
Pykerell, too, has made mean to the Abbot of St. Benet’s to remove a boundary
stone which has stood there sixty years. Pykerell also took the writer’s horse
and used it in his field without leave, on Friday before the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross, 6 Edw. IV., which made the beast unserviceable till Fastegong next
following. Pykerell has also done him other injuries.

     [As this petition refers to the ‘Fastegong’ or Shrovetide after Holy-Rood Day
6 Edw. IV. as a past date, it cannot have been drawn up earlier than the year 1467.
The manor of Basingham, in Norfolk, belonged to the Mauteby family, and came
to John Paston by marriage. This paper, therefore, was addressed to his widow
Margaret.]

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¹ [From Paston MSS., B.M.]

1467
or later