[Footnote 106-1: [From Fenn, iv. 116.] From the mention of Lord
Scales in this letter it might be supposed that it was written not
later than the year 1469, when Anthony Woodville, the last Lord
Scales, became Earl Rivers by the death of his father; but I
believe the date to be 1471, and that the writer is simply
speaking of Earl Rivers by his old title. In the first place there
is no appearance of either of the John Pastons requiring a royal
pardon before the year 1471; secondly, it is not probable that
either of them would have spoken so slightingly of the value of
Lord Scales’s intercession at an earlier period; and thirdly, it
seems doubtful whether Edmund Paston could have been old enough to
own a war-horse many years before. Finally, we find by Letter 780
following that John Paston, the youngest, succeeded in obtaining a
pardon signed by the King on the 17th July 1471. If the reference
to the autograph plate in Fenn is correct, this letter was in the
hand of his elder brother, Sir John Paston, Knight; but as it is
not signed, like most of his letters, ‘John Paston, K.,’ we are
inclined to suspect that it was really written by the younger
brother, like No. 780.]
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