R[obert] Clere to Sir John Paston, Knight

1023

ABSTRACT²

R[OBERT] CLERE TO SIR JOHN PASTON, KNIGHT

     Your farmer of Mauteby has not given surety and paid poundage for his
cattle, as he pretends. I hope you will not encourage him, when he tells you
he owes me no duty, and that he took not my ‘merch’ for twenty years, but
only so long as he continued in Heryngby farm. I denied him the replevin,
because the ground of my farm is parcel of ancient demesne. Your tenants
complain of me without cause. I hope you will not be displeased if I ask them
simply for what is due to me. I never said ‘that ye shuld hang upon many
bushes.’ I have always been glad to say or do my best for you, as any poor
gentleman in Norfolk. I pray you bring forth my accuser that I may come to
my answer, and know who would make variance between us.

     Ormesby, 24 Oct.

     [The writer of this letter was Robert Clere of Ormesby, who was knighted in
1494, and was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1501. The expression ‘your’ farmer
of Mauteby, shows that it was written after the death of Margaret Paston, and that
the Sir John addressed must have been her second son, to whom the manor of
Mauteby descended. The date is, therefore, not earlier than 1487 when this Sir
John was knighted, and may be many years later.]

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                ² [From Paston MSS., B.M.]

Not
before
1487