_To my ryght worchipffull cosyn, Margarete Paston, be this letter
delivered._
[Sidenote: 1451(?) / MAY 7]
Ryght worchipffull and welbeloved cosyn, I commaunde me to you as
herteli as I can, thankyng you off your goode chere the last tyme I was
with you. And, worchippffull cosyn, please that you to calle un to your
remembrauns I wrote un to you for my cosyn Anneys Loveday to have ben in
your service, and I reseyved from you a letter that your wyll was goode,
but durst not to in to the tyme ye hadde spoke with my cosyn your
husbonde.
Worchippffull cosyn, I have labored for hir in othir placez, but I can
not have my entent as yet. Wherffor yff that hit please you to have hyr
with you to in to the tyme that a mastris may be purveyeid for hir,
I pray you ther off, and I shall contente you ffor hir boarde, that ye
shal be wel pleased; for, cosyn, and I hadde a wyff, I wolde not care
for hir. And ther as she is, she is not well at hir ease, for she is at
Robert Lethum; and therfor I pray you herteli that ye wyll tendre this
my writyng, and I beseche you that in cas be that ye wyll fulffylle hit
that ye wel sende my cosyn Will Staunton for hir, and I shal kepe you
trewe promys, as I have be for wretyn. And I beseche Almyghti Jesu
preserve you. Wretyn at Hevenyngham, on the vij. day off May, &c.
Your oune cosyn,
JOHN HEVENYNGHAM, Knyght.
[Footnote 237.1: [From Fenn, iii. 144.] The date of this letter
is doubtful, but it was evidently written at a time when John
Paston had been for some considerable time absent from Norwich,
which appears to have been the case in the beginning of May
1451. The writer of this letter died in July 1453.]
192