_To my brother William Paston and my cosyn Richard Lightfoote, and to
iche of theym._
[Sidenote: 1503]
Mastyrs bothe, I recomand me to yow, and send yow closid herin a booke
of the seying of dyvers folkis, whiche testyfiee ayenst Thomas Rutty and
other. I prey yow shewe it to my lordys[166-2] good lordshepe, and that
I may know hys plesur ferther in as hasty wyse as may be, that I may
ordre me ther aftyr. I had gret labore to come by the woman that was in
servyse with Rutty, whiche sie [_saw_] all ther conversacyons many
yeris. She is now in servyse with Richard Calle. And I have Thomas Bange
in prison at Norwyche with the Shrevys of Norwych. The woman seythe he
is as bold a theffe as eny is in Ingland; but he wyll nowghte confesse,
nor I handelyd hym not sore to cause hym to confesse. But and Ruty knewe
that he and the woman be in hold, and hathe told talis, I thynke it wyll
cause Rutty to shewe the pleynesse.
Clerk and Roger Heron are endightid at this sessyons at Norwyche, last
holdyn on Twysday last past, for robbing of the pardoner; and so is
Rotty and all his felawshepe that the woman hathe apechid. According to
hir apechement, Raff Taylour is over the see; Robert Fenne is dede; John
Baker and William Taylour ar yett untakyn. If my lord send for T. Bange
or the woman, some of my lordis servauntes had need to come for theym;
for I can not do in the cause for lake of men and horse, for my wyff
ridith this next week in to Kente, to the wydow, hir doughtir Leghe.
And as for Ramesey, liek a prowde, lewde, obstynat foole, he wyll not
come befor my brothe[r] Sir R. Clere, nor me, but he seythe he wyll be
with my lord hastyly, and shewe hys mynde to his lordshepe, whiche I
beleve not. The substancyall marchantys of Norwyche hathe shewid ther
myndys to my brother Sir R. Clere and me that he entendith to William
Bayly gret wronge in his reknynges.
[Footnote 166-1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.] This letter is
anonymous, but is in the handwriting of Sir John Paston, the
younger of that name. From the mention of his wife and ‘the widow,
her daughter Leghe,’ it was evidently written not during the life
of Margery Brews, his first wife, who must have died about the
year 1495, but after his marriage to another. This second wife was
Agnes, daughter of Nicholas Morley, Esq., of the well-known family
at Glynd, in Sussex, and had already been twice married before her
marriage with Sir John. Her first husband was John Hervey, Esq. of
Thurleigh, Beds, Usher of the Chamber to King Edward IV. Her
second was John Isley of Sundridge, Kent. By the former she had a
daughter, Isabel, married to John Leghe or Alyghe, Esq. of
Addington, Surrey, who proved his father-in-law’s will in 1494.
She herself survived her own third husband, Sir John Paston, and
died in 1510. Her will, in which she calls herself ‘Dame Agnes
Paston,’ is at the principal registry at Somerset House, dated the
31st May in that year, and proved on the 19th June following. For
these particulars I was indebted to the genealogical researches of
the late Colonel Chester, and _Notes and Queries_, 5th S. ix. 326,
370, 414, 512.]
[Footnote 166-2: The Earl of Oxford.]
1072