_To owr ryght trusty and welbelovyd Frend, Ser Thomas Todenham._
[Sidenote: 1449(?) / NOV. 2]
Ryght trusty and welbelovyd frend, we grete you well, hertely desyryng
to here of yowr welfare, which we pray God preserve to yowr herts desyr;
and yf yt please yow to here of owr welfare, we wer in goud hale atte
the makyng of this lettre, praying you hertely that ye wyll consider owr
message, which owr Chapleyn Mayster Robert Hoppton shall enforme you of.
For as God knowyth we have gret besynesse dayly, and has had here by for
this tyme. Wherfor we pray you to consyder the purchas that we have made
wyth one John Swyffhcotte, Squier of Lyncolnshyr, of lxxx. and viij_li._
by yer, whereuppon we must pay the last payment the Moneday nexte after
Seynt Martyn’ day, which sum ys CCCC. and lviij_li._; wherfor we pray
you wyth all owr herte that ye wyll lend us x_li._, or twenty, or whet
the seyd Maister Robert wants of hys payment, as we may do for you in
tym for to com; and we shall send yt you ageyn afor Newyers day wyth the
grace of God, as we ar trew knyght. For there is nonne in your cuntre
that we myght wryght to for trust so well as unto you; for, as we be
enformyd, ye be owr well wyller, and so we pray you of goud
contynuaunce.
Wherfore we pray you that ye consyder our entent of this mony, as ye
wyll that we do for you in tym to com, as God knowyth, who have you in
hys kepyng.
Wreten atte London, on All Salwyn [_All Souls’_] day, wyth inne owr
loggyng in the Grey Freys [_Friars_] wyth inne Newgate.