_To my right honorabull and right wurshipful Lord, my Lord Viscont
Beaument._
[Sidenote: Before 1450]
Right honorabull and my right wurshipfull Lord, I recomaund me unto your
gode Lordship with all my service, evermore desireng to here of your
prosperitie and welfare, the which I pray God encres and contynue to his
plesur, and after your oone herts desire; thankyng you of the gode
Lordship that ye have shewed me at all tymes, beseching you alway of
gode contynuance.
Plesid your gode Lordship to be remembred how afore this tyme Hugh
Wythom hath said he wold be in rest and peese with me, and not to
maligne agayn me otherwise than lawe and right wold; that
notwithstandyng, upon Munday last past, he and iij. men with him come
unto a servaunt hous of myn in Boston, cald William Shirref, and there,
as he sete at his werke, stroke him upon the hede and in the body with a
dagger, and wondet him sore, and pulled him out of his hous, and set him
in prison without any cause resonabull, or without writ, or any other
processe shewid unto him; and that me semes longs not for him to do, bot
as he says he is endited, and as your gode Lordship knawes wele, I and
all my servaunts are in like wise; bot and any man shuld have done hit,
it longs either to the shirref or to your baliff as I conceyve, and
other cause he had non to him as fer as I kan knawe, bot awnly for the
malissiousness that he hath unto me, ne I kan think non other bot it is
so. And now yistre nyght my Lord Welles[119.1] come to Boston with
iiij^xx [_four score_] horses, and in the mornyng foloyng toke hym out
of prison, saying afore all peepll, ‘Fals thefe, you shall be hanged,
and as mony of thy maistre men as may be goten’ --as your servaunt John
Abbot kan report unto your gode Lordship,--and hath taken him away with
him to Tatessall, what to do with him I kan not say, bot as I suppose to
have him to Lincoln Castell: wherfor I besech your gode Lordship in this
matier to be my gode Lord, and it please your gode Lordship to write a
letter to the kepere of the Castell of Lincoln, that it liked him to
deliver him out of prison undre a sufficient seurety had for him, for
and thai may kepe him still be this meyne, thai may take all the
servaunts that I have, and so I may do agayn in like wise.
And also, as I am enformed, without he be had out of prison in hast,
it will be right gravewis to him to heile of his hurt, he is so sore
streken; and if there be any service that your gode Lordship will
comaund me to do in any cuntre, plesid you to send me word, and it shal
be done to my power with the grace of God, which have you, my right
honorabull and wurshipfull Lord, alway in his blessid kepyng. Writen at
Kyme,[119.2] upon Wednesday next after our Ladi day the
Assumpcion.[119.3]
Also plesid your gode lordship to wit, after this letter was made, there
come a man fro Tatessall into my fenne, which owght me gode will, and be
cause he wold not be holden suspect, he speke with wemen which were
mylkand kyne, and bad theme goo to a preest of myn to Dokdike, and bid
him fast goo gif me warnyng how that my Lord Wilughby,[120.1] my Lord
Cromwell,[120.2] and my Lord Welles[120.3] proposid theme to set a
sessions, and hang the said William Shirref, and thai myght bryng ther
entent abowte; and so, as I and your servaunt John Abbot stode to geder,
the prest come and gaf me warnyng herof, which I trust for my worship
your gode Lordship wold not shuld happen, for it wer to me the grettest
shame that myght falle; bot and it plese your gode Lordship to write to
all your servaunts in this cuntre, that thai will be redy upon a day
warnyng to come when I send theme word, I trust to God thai shal not
hang him agayn the lawe, bot I, with help of your gode Lordship, shall
be abull to let hit.
By your Servaunt,