And over that within the faid twelve days the faid John fhall do (caufe) lawful eftate to be made to the faid William of lands, tenements, rents, and fervices to the yearly value of forty marks (267. 135. 4d.) over all charges borne to have and hold to the faid William (for) term of his life, without impeachment of waste, the remainder thereof to the faid Elizabeth to have and hold to her (for) term of her life, without impeachment of wafte. Alfo it is accorded that the faid William fhall make estate of all the refidue of his lands which he is feized of, or any other man to his ufe to fuch perfons as the faid John fhall name, to the use of the faid John.

Alfo the faid John Clopton fhall do (caufe) lawful eftate to be made to the faid Elizabeth of lands, tenements, rents, and fervices to the yearly value of 30l. over all charges borne, to have and hold to her during the life of the faid William. And moreover the faid John promytteth (promiseth) and enfureth by the faith of his body that he fhall leave, over the 40l. worth (of) land abovefaid, to his heirs and iflue male of the body of the faid Elizabeth begotten, lands in fee fimple or in tail to the yearly value of 40 marks (261. 135. 4d.) in cafe the fame male iffue be governed to the said John as the fon oweth to be to the father. And, &c.

*

hear of your welfare; praying you to weet that fir Thomas Howes hath purveyed four dormants (beams) for the drawte chamber, and the malthoufe, and the brewery, whereof he hath bought three, and the fourth, that fhall be the longest and greatest of all, he fhall have from Heylefdon, which he faith my mafter Faftolf fall give me, because my chamber fhall be made therewith. As for the laying of the faid dormants, they fhall be laid this next week because of the malthoufe, and as for the remanant I trow it shall abid 'till ye come home, because I can neither be purveyed of posts, nor of boards not yet.

I have taken the measure in the drawte chamber, there as ye would your coffers and your cowntewery fhould be fet for the while, and there is no fpace befide the bed, though the bed were removed to the door, for to fet both your board and your coffers there, and to have fpace to go and fit befide; wherefore I have purveyed that ye fhall have the fame drawte chamber that ye had before there, as ye fhall lye to yourself; and when your gear is removed out of your little houfe, the door fhall be locked, and your bags laid in one of the great coffers, fo that they fhall be fafe, I trust.

Richard Charles and John Dow have fetched home the Schild from Rockland Tofts, and it is a pretty boy; and it is told me that Will is at Blickling with a poor man of the town; a young woman that was fome time with Burton of this town fent me word thereof; I pray you fend me word if ye will that any thing that ye will be done to him

+ What the word drawte means, when applied to a chamber, I am not certain.

Cowntewery muft mean his counter, desk, or board to fit and write, &c. at.

The child now brought horhe feems to have been at nurfe at Rockland Tofts.

Williams's fituation at Blickling appears to have been an improper one.

ere

EDWARD IV.- LETTER XIV.

To my right reverend and worshipful father, John Pafton, efq. dwelling in Hellefdon, be this letter delivered in hafte (c)

MOST reverend and worshipful father, I recommend me heartily, and fubmit me lowlily to your good fatherhood, befeeching you for charity of your daily bleffing; I befeech you to hold me excufed that I fent to you none erst (no earlier) no writing, for I could not fpeed to mine intent, that ye fent to ine for. I have laboured daily my lord of Effex, treasurer of England, to have moved the king, both of the manor (of) Dedham, and of the bill, copied of the court roll, every morning afore he went to the king, and often times enquired of him, and (if) he had moved the king in these matters; he answered me nay, faying it was no time, and faid he would it were as fain fped as I myfelf; fo oft times delaying me that in truth I thought to have fent you word, that I feeled by him that he was not willing to move the king therein; nevertheless I laboured to him continually, and prayed Baronners (Berners) his man to remember him of it. I told often times to my faid lord that I had a man tarrying in town, that I should have fent to you for other fundry matters, and he tarryed for nothing, ner of making the compliment to the earl of Effex is ingeniously contrived; and fhews Berners to be one who understood his business well.

He was most probably a relation of the earl's family, as his brother John Bourchier married, Margery, a daughter of fir Thomas Berners, of Weft Horfeley, in Surry.

Henry viscount Bourchier, lord treafurer of England, was created earl of Effex in 1461, in the first year of the reign of Edward IV. He was a man of great knowledge and application to bufinefs, and at different times filled most of the great offices of state. His death happened in 1483. He was uncle to the king by his marriage with a fifter of Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, the king's father.

but

but that I might fend you by him an answer of the faid matters; other times befeeching him to speed me in thofe matters for this caufe, that ye fhould think no default in me for remembering in the faid matters.

And now of late, I remembering him of the fame matter, inquired if he had moved the king's highness therein, and he aufwered me, that he had felt and moved the king therein, rehearsing the king's anfwer therein, how that when he had moved the king in the faid manor of Dedham, befeeching him to be your good lord therein, confidering the fervice and true heart that ye have done, and owe to him, and in cfpecial the right that ye have thereto; he faid, he would be your good lord therein, as he would be to the pooreft man in England, he would hold with you in your right, and as for favour he will not be understood, that he fhall fhew favour more to one man than to another, not to one in England.

And as for the bill, copied of the court roll, when he moved to him of it, he fmiled, and faid, that fuch a bill there was, faying that ye would have oppreffed fundry of your countrymen of worshipful men, and therefore he kept it ftill, neverthelefs he faid he should look it up in haste, and ye fhould have it.

Baronners undertook to me twice or thrice, that he fhould fo have remembered his lord and mafter, that I fhould have had it within two or three days; he is often times abfent, and therefore I have it not yet, when I can get it, I fhall fend it you, and of the king's mouth, his name that take it him.

I send you home Peacock again, he is not for me, God fend grace that he may do you good fervice, that by eftimation is not likely; ye hall have knowledge afterward how he hath demeaned him here with me; I would, faving your difpleafure,

that ye were delivered of him, for he fhall never do you profit nor worfhip.

I fuppofe ye understand that the money that I had of you at London may not endure with me till that the king go into Wales and come again, for I understand it fhall be long ere he come again, wherefore I have fent to London to mine uncle Clement to get an hundred fhillings of Chriftopher Hanfon your fervant, and fend it me by my faid fervant, and mine harnefs with it, which I left at London to make clean.

I beseech you not to be difpleafed with it, for I could make none other chevifance (contract), but I fhould have borrowed it of a ftrange man, fome of my fellows, who I fuppofe fhould not like you, and ye heard of it another time. I am in furety whereas I fhall have another man in the ftead of Peacock.

My lord of Effex faith he will do as much for you as for any efquire in England, and Baronners his man telleth me, faying, "your father is much beholden to my lord, for he loveth him well;" Berners moved me once, and said that ye must needs do fomewhat for my lord and his; and I faid, I wift well, that ye would do for him that lay in your power; and he said that there was a little money betwixt you and a gentleman of Effex called Dyrward, faying, that there is as much between my faid lord and the faid gentleman, of the which money he difireth your part.

It is talked here how that ye and Howard fhould have striven together on the *fhire day, and one of Howard's men fhould have stricken you twice with a dagger, and fo yefhould have been hurt, but for a good doublet, that ye had on at that time; bleffed be God, that ye had it on.

*This was probably occafioned by fome election or other difpute which arofe at the county court,

No

To my cousin, Margaret Paston (d). MINE own dear fovereign lady, I recommend me to you, and thank you of the great cheer that ye made me here to my great coft and charge and labour. No more at this time, but that I pray you ye will fend me hither two ells of † worsted for doublets, to happe me (wrap me up warm) this cold winter; and that ye enquire where William Pafton bought his tippet of fine worfted,, which is almoft like filk, and if that be much finer than that ye fhould buy me after seven or eight fhillings, then buy me a quarter and the nail thereof for collars, though it be dearer than the other, for I would make my doublet all worsted for

worship of Norfolk, rather than like Gonner's doublet.

Item, as for the matter of the nine fcore pounds afked by my lady of Bedford for the manor of Weft Thurrok, whereas fir Thomas Howys faith that he hath no writing thereof, but that fir John Faftolf purchased the faid manor, and paid certain money in earnest, and afterwards granted his bargain to the duke of Bedford, and fo the money that he took was for the money that he had paid; peradventure fir Thomas Howys hath writing thereof, and knoweth it not; for if there be any fuch money paid upon any bargain he fhall find it in Kyrtling's books that was fir John Faftolf's receiver, and it was about fuch time as the duke of Bedford was last in England, which, as it is told me, was the 8th year of king Harry V. (1420,) or the 8th year of king Harfy VI. (1429), and the fum that he paid for the faid bargain was three hundred marks (2007.) Alfo, he fhall find the 22d year of king Harry (VI.) or there about (1443), in the accounts of one of Faftolf's receivers at London, that there was taken of fir Thomas Tyrell, and of the duchefs of § Exeter, that was wife to fir Lewis Johnes, farmer of

the

which, for the worship of Norfolk, J. Pafton defired his doublet might be made,

Jaquelina, daughter of Peter of Luxenburgh, carl of Saint Poul, was the second wife of John Plantagenet, duke of Bedford; fhe was married to him in 1433, and after his decease, in 1435, fhe became the wife of fir Richard Wydvile, and died in 1472.

This was moft probably Margaret, daughter and heir of fir Thomas Neville, and widow of Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter; who was buried in the Abbey Church at Bury St. Edmund's. On digging amongst the ruins of this Abbey, the body of the duke was found, on the 20th of February 1772, wrapped in lead, and entire.

The face, hair, and every part were perfect, and the flesh folid, but being expofed to the air, the body foon became offenfive.

the faid manor, certain money for repayment of part of the faid three hundred marks. Alfo he fhall find in years after that, or that year, or thereabouts, that fir John Faftolf received money of my lord *Rivers that now is, by the name of Richard Wydvile, for his own debt due to fir John Faftolf; wherefore, if fir Thomas be true to his mafter, let him do his devoir to make that Worcester, which is upheld by him with the dead's goods, be true to his mafter, or else it is time for fir Thomas to forfake him, and help to punish him, or men must fay that fir Thomas is not true; and moreover let fir Thomas examine what he can find in this matter that I fent him word of, which matter he fhall find in the faid receiver's book, if he lift to feek it.

I am forry to add, that, for want of proper attention, the body was indecently thrown out of its leaden repofitory (which was fold by the workmen for its value by weight), and tumbled into the ground, where it remained till the next day, when, at the expence of some neighbouring gentlemen, an oaken coffin was procured, in which the remains were decently deposited, and interred near the spot where they were .originally discovered.

I procured fome of the hair, which was of a fine brown colour, and very flexible,

Sir Richard Wydvile, in 1448, was created baron Rivers of Grafton in Northamptonshire, and elected a knight of the Garter. His daughter Elizabeth afterwards became the queen of Edward IV. who then advanced her father to the dignity of earl Rivers. He was feized by the Lançafter mutineers, and beheaded at Banbury, in 1469. + Male, or mail, is a trunk or portmanteau. It is to be obferved, that in the original letter the verfes do not finish the line, but are written as profe.

VOL. III.

And, if Calle bring us hither twenty pound, Ye fhall have your pieces again, good and Or elfe, if he will not pay you the value of round; the pieces, there To the poft do nail his ear, Or elfe do him fome other wrongs, For I will no more in his default berAnd but if (unles) the receiving of my live. lihood be better plied

row;

§ He fhall Chrift's hour and mine clean
And look ye be merry and take no thought,
tried ;
For this rhyme is cunningly wrought.
My lord Percy and all this houfe
Recommend them to you, dog, cat and
mouse,

For they fay ye are a good *gill.
And wish ye had been here still,
No more to you at this time,
But God him fave that made this rhyme.
Written the of Saint Mathe,
By your true and trufty hulband J. P.
February,

Between 1461 and 1465.
1 and 5 E. IV.

LETTER XLII.

To the right worshipful fir John Pafton, knight, be this delivered (e).

RIGHT worthipful fir, and tenderly beloved in our Lord God, I commend me to you, fending you knowing (knowledge) that I did your

Pieces of money.

I do not understand this line.

errand

This muft be Henry lord Percy, fon and heir of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, who was killed at the battle of Towton, in 1461, by Ellenor, granddaughter and heir of Robert lord Poynings.

His father having been attainted, he continued to be called lord Percy; but in 1472 was fully reftored both in blood and title, the attainder of his father being made void. He was murdered by a tumultuous mob in Yorkshire, in 1488.

*An agreeable companion.

The exact date of this letter cannot be afcertained.

(e) We fee in this letter the hold which the clergy had on the laity for any omiffions in payment of what was due to the church; the danger of fir John Pafton's foul is gently touched upon, and the fears for the peace of that of fir John Faftolf is ingeniously idtroduced. From the account in this letter the arrears were of fo confiderable standing,

B

that