[Sidenote: 1433(?)]
Prefixed to this document in Fenn is the following title:--
‘A Petition to the Commons of England against Sir William Paston,
Knight, a Judge of the Common Pleas, by William Dalling.’ This
heading, however, has been taken from a more modern endorsement. No
contemporaneous document, so far as I am aware, gives Judge Paston
the designation of knight, or speaks of him as Sir William. In this
petition itself he is called simply William Paston, one of the
Justices; and although his name occurs frequently on the Patent
Rolls, in commissions of the peace, of gaol delivery, and the like,
down to the year of his death, the word ‘miles’ is never appended to
it.
The original commencement of this document has been crossed out. It was
in these words:--
Plesit to the righte sage and wyse Communes of this present
Parlement, that wher every Justice of the Kyng is sworne that he
shulde not take no fees ne reward for to be of councell with noo
man, but oonly wyth our Soverayne Lorde the Kyng, and therto thei be
swore. And ther is oon Will’ Paston, one of the Justice of our
Soverayne Lorde in the Comene Place, taketh fees and rewarde.
On the back of the original document is written, in a hand of the
time, ‘Falsa billa Will’i Dalling, ad Parliamentum tempore quo Henr.
Grey fuit vicecomes ante annum terciodecimum Regis Henr. vj^{ti}.’
Henry Grey was sheriff of Norfolk in 1430, and again in 1433-4. The
Parliament referred to must either have been that of 8 Hen. VI.
(1429-30) or that of 12 Hen. VI. (1433), which sat till 21st
December. Probably the latter.
[Sidenote: 1434(?)]
Plese it to Commines of the present Parlement, that William Paston, on
of the Justice of oure Saverayne Lorde Kyng, takyth diverse fees and
rewardes of diverses persones withinne the shir of Norffolk and Suffolk,
and is with holde with every matere in the sayde contrees, that is for
to sey:--Of the Toune of Yernemuth, 1_s._ yerly; of the Abot of Seyn
Benetys. xxvj_s._ viij_d._; of the Prior of Seyn Feithes, xx_s._; ‘and
of my Lady Rothenhale,[39.1] xx_s_’; and of the Prior of Norwich, x_s._;
and of the Prior of Penteney, xx_s._; and of the Toun of Lenn, xl_s._;
and of the Prior of Walsyngham, xx_s._; and of Katherine Shelton,[39.2]
x. mrc. ayeins the Kyng for to be of hir councell for to destroye the
right of the Kyng and of his warde, that is for to sey, Raf,[39.3] soon
and eyer of John Shelton.
[Footnote 38.1: [From Fenn, iii. 14.]]
[Footnote 39.1: This sentence in the original has a line drawn
over it. She was a widow of Sir John Rothenhale, Knight, and
dying at Caister, by Yarmouth, in 1440, was buried in Norwich
Cathedral.--F. _See_ Nos. 13 and 15, _ante_.]
[Footnote 39.2: Catharine, widow of William Shelton, Esq., and
daughter of Simon Barret, was grandmother to Ralph, and died in
1456.--F.]
[Footnote 39.3: Sir Ralph Shelton, Knight, son and heir of John
Shelton, Esq., was born in 1430. He married Margaret, daughter
of Robert Clere, Esq. of Ormesby, and was High Sheriff of
Norfolk.--F.]
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