Syr, it is told me that Nycolas Barlee, the Scyuer, hathe takyn an axion
of dett ayenst me thys terme. I prey yow let Whetley or some body spek
with hym, and lete hym wet that if he swe me softly thys terme, that he
shall be payed or the nexte terme be at an end. It is a bought vj_li._,
and in feythe he shold have had it or thys tyme, and our threshers of
Sweynsthorp had not dyed upp; and if I myght have payed it hym a yer
ago, as well as I trust I shall sone aftyr Crystmass, I wold not for
xij_li._ have brokyn hym so many promessys as I have.
Also, syr, I prey yow send me by the next man that comyth fro London ij.
pottys of tryacle of Jenne,--they shall cost xvj_d._,--for I have spent
ought that I had with my yong wyf, and my yong folkys, and my sylff, and
I shall pay hym that shall bryng hem to me, and for hys caryage. I pray
you lett it be sped.
The pepyll dyeth sore in Norwyche, and specyally abought my house, but
my wyff and my women come not ought, and fle ferther we can not; for at
Sweynsthorpe, sythe my departyng thens, they have dyed, and ben syke nye
in every house of the towne.
[Footnote 23-1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.] It will be seen from the
contents that this letter must have been written after the receipt
of the last, or of one to the same effect addressed to John
Paston.]
[Footnote 24-1: The writer probably intended to say ‘son and heir
to William Clippesby,’ who died about this time. His widow
Catherine, the daughter of John Spelman, Esq., of Stow Bekerton,
soon afterwards married Edmund Paston.]
[Footnote 24-2: Richard, Duke of York, son of Edward IV., at this
time a child of seven years old, and Anne Mowbray, daughter of the
late Duke of Norfolk, to whom he was married in 1478.]
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