_To the ryght worshypfull Sir John Paston, Knyght._
[Sidenote: 1478 / MAY 27]
I greet yow well and send yow Goddys blyssyng and myn, latyng yow wete
that I have sent yow be Whetele the clothe of golde, chargyng yow that
it be not solde to none other use than to the performyng of yowyr fadyrs
toombe, as ye send me worde in wrytyng; yf ye sell yt to any othyr use,
by my trowthe, I shall never trost yow wyll I leve.
Remembyr that yt coste me xx^ti marke the pleggyng owte of yt, and yf I
wher not glad to se that made, I wolde not departe from it. Remembyr yow
what charge I have had with yow of late, whyche wyl not be for my ease
this ij. yer; whan ye may better, I trost ye whyll remembyr yt.
My cosyn Clere dothe as meche coste at Bromhom as whylle drawe an C_li._
upon the deskys in the quere, and in othyr places, and Heydon in lyke
whyse, and yf ther shulde no thyng be don for yowyr fadyr, yt wolde be
to gret a schame for us alle, and in cheffe to se hym lye as he dothe.
Also as I understond that my cosyn Robert Clere thynkyth gret on
kyndenesse in delyng wyth hym of Pecoke, for certeyn pasture that
ye[324-1] grawntyd hym to have, and Pecoke hath letyn it to othyr, suche
as he lyste to lete yt to, not withstondyng my cosyn hath leyd the
pastur with hys catell, and Pecok hathe strenyd them.
I thynk thys delyng is not as yt shulde be. I wolde that iche of yow
shulde do for other, and leve as kynnysmen and frendys; for suche
servawnts my make trobyll by twyxe yow, wheche wher a ageynste cortesy,
so nyhe newbors as ye be, he is a man of substance and worchyp, and so
wylle be takyn in thys schyr; and I wer lothe that ye shulde lese the
good wylle of suche as may do for yow.
Item, wher as ye have begonne your cleyme in Heylysdon and Drayton,
I pray God send yow good spede and foderance in yit. Ye have as good a
season as ye wulde wysche, consyderyng that yowyr adversary standys not
in best favyr with the Kynge.
Also ye have the voyse in this contre, that ye may do as meche with the
Kyng, as any knygth that ys longyng to the corte. Yf yt be so, I pray
God contynu yt; and also that ye shuld mary rygth nygth of the Qwenys
blood; qwat sche ys we are not as certeyn, but yf yt be so, that yowyr
lond schuld come agayne by the reason of yowyr maryage, and to be sett
in rest, at the reverence of God for sake yt nowt, yf ye can fynde in
yowyr harte to love hyr, so that sche be suche one as ye can thynke to
have issu by, or ellys, by my trowthe, I had rather that ye never maryd
in yowyr lyffe.
Also, yf yowyr mater take not now to good effecte, ye and all yowyr
frendys may repent them that ye began yowyr cleyme, with owte that ye
have take suche a suyr wey, as may be to yowyr intent, for many
inconvenyens that may falle ther of. God send yow good spede in all
yowyr maters.
Wretyn at Mawteby, the day after Seynt Austyn in May, the xviij. yer of
Kyng Edward the iiij^te.
Be yowyr Modyr.
[Footnote 323-2: [From Fenn, ii. 264.]]
[Footnote 324-1: Fenn’s literal text reads ‘that be grawntyd,’
which seems to be an error. In the modern transcript it is ‘that
ye granted.’]
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