_To John Paston, esquyer._
[Sidenote: 1472(?) / OCT. [23]]
I grete you wele; letyng you wete that on Saterday last past within
nyght the felesshep at Cayster tokyn ought of Mawtby Cloos xvj. shep of
diverse mennes that were put therein to pasture, and thei ledde them a
wey, so that every man ferith to put any bestis or catell therin, to my
grete hurt and discoragyng of my fermour that is now of late come
theder. And the seid evill disposed persones affraid my seid fermour as
he came from Yarmoth this weke and shotte at hym that if he had not had
a good hors he had belike to have ben in joparte of his lyfe; so that be
thes rewle I am like to lese the profite of the lyfelode this yere but
if there be purveyed the hastyere remedy. Thei threte so my men I dar
send non theder to gader it. Thei stuffe and vetayll sore the place, and
it is reported here that my Lady of Norffolk seth she wull not leas it
in no wyse. And the Duchesse of Suffolkis men sey that she wull not
departe from Heylesdon ner Drayton,--she wuld rather departe from money;
but that shuld not be wurchepfull for you; for men shull not than set be
you. There for I will avyse you to have rather the lyvelod than the
money; ye shall mown excuse you be the College which must contynue
perpetuall, and money is sone lost and spent whan that lyfelode abideth.
Item, I lete you wete that Hastyngis hath entred ageyn in to his fee of
the Constabyllshep of the Castell of Norwich be the vertu of his patent
that he had of Kyng Harry; and I here sey he hath it graunted to hym and
his heyeris. There was at his entres your unkill William and other
jentilmen dwellyng in Norwich. This was do be fore that ye sent me the
letter be Pers I had forgetyn to have sent you word ther of. God kepe
you. Wretyn the Friday next after Sent Luke.
Be your moder.
[Footnote 154-2: [Add. MS. 34,889, f. 108.] This letter was
clearly written between the surrender of Caister in 1469 and its
recovery by Sir John Paston after the death of the Duke of Norfolk
in 1476. The year 1472 may be considered very probable from what
Margaret Paston writes in June of that year (No. 803).]
812