---- ---- TO FRIAR BRACKLEY (?).
[Sidenote: About 1440 (?)]
Touching a suit of Reynold Rowse against William Burgeys. This suit was
instituted originally for 5_s._ 4_d._ of rent; but when Rouse found he
could not prevail by right, he maliciously sued the other for trespass
in having fished his water, and driven him away by force. He afterwards
got him arrested for treachery upon an obligation (_i.e._, a bond).
Burgeys complained to Justice Paston, who counselled him not to plead;
‘For zyf thu do, he seyd, thu xalte hafe the werse, be thi case never so
trewe, for he is feid with my Lord of [N]orthfolke, and mech he is of he
[_sic_] counsel; and also, thu canst no man of lawe in Northfolke ne in
Sowthfolke to be with the azens hym; and, for [s]othe no more myth I
qwan I had a ple azens hym; and therfor myn counsel is, that thu make an
end qwat so ever the pay, for he xal elles on do the and brynge the to
nowte.’
[This letter is mutilated, and in part defaced. It is addressed on
the back-- ‘Be this take to Mayster Brele (?) of the Greye Freres.’
Although the name seems to be written Brele, it was probably
intended for Friar Brackley of Norwich, of whom we have several
letters of a later period. The date must be between the year 1429,
when William Paston was made a judge, and 1444, when he died; and as
the name of Reginald Rows occurs in Blomefield (_Hist. of Norfolk_,
ix. 441) ‘about 1440,’ this letter will probably not be far out of
its true place if inserted in that year.]
[Footnote 48.1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.]]
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