[Footnote 71-1: [From Fenn, v. 302.] This letter was not a part of
the Paston correspondence, but was printed by Fenn in the series
as a letter of much historical interest from a copy given him by
the Rev. John Brand, secretary to the Society of Antiquaries. The
following memoranda accompanied the copy:--
‘Extract from an ancient MS. of pedigrees, etc., in quarto, late
in the possession of Sir Walter Blackett, Bart., and now the
property of John Erasmus Blackett, Esq., Alderman of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne; p. 333, under title of “_A Coppie of some
Letters which were found in Rabie Castle after the Rebellion, to
shew the fashion . . . . of those times_.” The above MS. is of the
date of James I., though there are several continuations in a more
modern hand.
‘This copy has doubtless been a transcript of an original letter
of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III., and
written just before his seizure of the crown.
‘Raby Castle is in the county of Durham.’
Fenn adds that it does not appear clearly who this Lord Nevill
was. But as the letter was found in Raby Castle after the great
rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in
1569, it was evidently addressed to one of that family of Nevills,
the heads of which were Earls of Westmoreland. In 1483 the Earl of
Westmoreland’s name was Ralph Nevill, but he died in the year
following, and was succeeded in the title by Ralph, son and heir
of his brother, John, Lord Nevill, who was slain at Towton. It was
this Ralph, then heir-presumptive to the earldom, who is here
called Lord Nevill. He had got his father’s attainder reversed in
1472, and his title of Lord Nevill was recognised. _See_ G. Ele’s
_Peerage_, viii. 112.]
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