Sir James Gloys to Sir John Paston

  • Medieval Family Life
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Title
Sir James Gloys to Sir John Paston
Reference
Add. 27445, f. 21
Date
?10 November 1466
Library / Archive
  • The British Library
Transcript location(s) in printed volume(s)
Gairdner, Vol IV, item 650
Transcript from James Gairdner, 'The Paston Letters, A.D., 1422-1509, New Complete Library Edition, Volume IV'

650

 

ABSTRACT1

 

SIR JAMES GLOYS TO SIR JOHN PASTON

 

     Was at Snaylwell on Sunday, but could get no money. Most of the tenants
away at Canterbury or elsewhere. The rest said when you were there last you
had given them till Candlemas, ‘so that thei myght malt ther corn and brynge it
to the best preffe.’ Warned them to be ready by Tuesday before St. Edmond
the King, when Richard Calle would visit them. A thrifty man beside Bery
is willing to take the farm; but every one says the last farmer was undone by it.
Advises Paston not to overcharge his farms. I have seen Catelyn’s corn, and
your tenants say it is sufficient to content you. Your shepherd wishes to know
if you will continue him, for no one has spoken to him since my master your
father died. Men of Fordham have occupied your ground these two years that
my master has been in trouble. I think you should speak to my Lord of Wor-
cester, as he and Woodhous are lords of the town. I have bid the farmers at
Snaylwell sow some wheat land, and have warned the tenants at Sporle, Pagrave,
and Cressingham to be ready to pay. Advises him to keep up his place at
Langham’s. If ‘my master’ had lived he would have exchanged it for the
parsonage. Supped on Monday night at a place of the Duke of Suffolk’s with
the parson of Causton, a chaplain of the Duchess, ‘and they talked sore of my
Lady’s bargain, and were right sorry that she should forsake it.’ The parson
asserted that the feoffees had put her in possession of the manors. Talk over
this with your counsel; for if the feoffees be compelled to release in Chancery it
will be nought, because of the estate they made before; so when you expect to
be most quiet you will be most troubled. There was also the parson of Bramp-
ston, and he said W. Yelverton had sent a letter to the bailiff he has set at
Guton, but what it meant I could not find out. W. Yelverton has put the
parson of Heynford out of his farm. I did not speak with your mother before
writing this, as she was at Caister.

     Norwich, St. Martin’s Even.

 

     From the mention of John Paston the father as dead, and the trouble he had been
in for two years, it would appear that this letter must have been written in 1466, the
year of his death. The letter is endorsed in a contemporary hand: ‘Literæ anno vj.
et vij. Edwardi iiijti.’

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      1 [From Paston MSS., B.M.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

1466(?)
NOV. 10