Robert Leventhorpe to Sir Robert Plumpton

137 Robert Leventhorpe¹ to Sir Robert Plumpton [14 September 1499] (No.
        163, p. 105)

[p. 106] After due recomendations to your good mastership & hartely
desire of your welfare, for which, of duty, I am euer bound to pray for.
And sithe I hard say þat a servant of yours as decesed of the sicknes
which hath bene to your disease,² I am right sorey therfore. Wherfore
I wold aduise your mastership, my lady & all your houshold many
from hencforth to make promyse, & keepe yt, to fast the euen of St
Oswald [. . .]^a king & marter,^b yerly;³ and þat promyse truly entended
to be performed, I trust verely ye shalbe no more vexed with þat
sicknes, & thus the Most Myghty preserve you & yours, this fest of
Exaltacon of þe Holy [Cross]^c.

Your servant     Rob[ert] Leventhorp^d

Endorsed (p. 105): To my right worshipfull master Sir Robt Plompton kt

     ^a & kepe yt deleted.

     ^b Marginal note: A remindir for preventing of þe plage.

     ^c MS ghost.

     ^d Appended: Copied þe 27 of Aprill 1613.

     ¹ 69.

     ² London and Oxford suffered heavily from an outbreak in 1499–1500. Among the
local victims was the archbishop of York, Thomas Rotherham, at Cawood, Creighton,
287; F. Drake, Eboracum (1736), 447; D.M. Palliser, ‘Epidemics in Tudor York’, NH, viii
(1973), 47.

     ³ 5 Aug. Lady Margaret Beaufort acquired a manuscript book (c.1500) that included a
list of prayers and anthems for use by those seeking protection against the pestilence,
Jones, King’s Mother, 147.

LETTER CVII.

To my right worshipfull master, Sir Robart Plompton, kt.

    After due recomendations to your good mastership and hartely
desire of your welfare, for which of duty I am ever bound to pray
for, and sithe I hard say that a servant of yours was decesed of
the sicknes, which hath bene to your disease, I am right sory
therfore.^a Wherfore I wold advise your mastership, my lady,
and all your houshold many,^b from hencforth to make promyse,
and keepe yt, to fast the even of St. Oswald,^c kyng and marter,
yerely; and that promise truly entended to be performed, I trust
verely ye shalbe no more vexed with that sicknes. And thus the
Most Mighty preserve you and yours, this fest of Exaltacion of the
holy ghost ( sic, sed lege Cross).

    ( 14 Sept. 1499.)    Your servant ROBART LEVENTHORPE.^d

    ^a This and the following letter were apparently written in the year of the great plague
in England, 15 Hen. VII. 1499.

    ^b Many, meny, or meiny, a family. (See Hallamshire Glossary, by Rev. J. Hunter,
App. P. 155.)

    ^c The feast of St. Oswald was kept on the fourth of August.

    ^d Robert Leventhorpe of Leventhorpe-Hall, in the parish of Swillington, com.
Ebor. esq.