[Sidenote: 1461 / NOV. 20]
Since I left you I have received at Cotton £4 : 2s., with which I have
made purchases of linen shirts, &c. for you. Shall have more money
before Christmas. Debenham, Jenney, nor none of his men ‘come not there
sen’ that I was there.’ A letter of attorney is made for Nakton in your
name to Sir John Heveningham, and a rental and fermal sent him. We kept
a court this week at Calcotte but could get little money, not so much as
I paid my Lady of Suffolk’s officers. Farmers will not occupy there till
appointment be made between Paston and Debenham; nor Risynge till he
hear from Paston. Can get no day for Mautby. They will not give a noble,
nor even 6 shillings, for a cow. Dey occupies your lands there till you
come home. Risynge would take them and the closes at Castre if he is not
to have Calcotte. The prests shall be paid as soon as we get money,
I hope this week. Wheat 12_d._ a comb, barley 8_d._, malt 9_d._ and
10_d._ No good price for malt, ‘saving, as we understand, it is good
Flanders.’ John Russe and Robert Glover are sending a ship with corn
over, and we have ventured with them 100 comb malt. You should make some
bargain with your beer brewers. Can get no money from Aleynes, farmer of
Gresham, since ye rode, but 40_s._ Has laid in sufficient beef for
Paston’s household till ‘Fastegang’ (Lent). Sir Thomas Howys advises my
mistress not to send Edmund Paston to Cambridge or elsewhere till after
Christmas. Please ask Clement, your brother, to get a writ against
Geoffrey Clerk of West Somerton for the 20_s._ that Belys gave him to
pay Clement. Remember the letter I sent you last week.
Caister, St. Edmund’s Day.
[From what is here said of the levying of rents at Cotton, and from
the mention of Debenham and Jenney in connection with it, we may
presume this letter was written in 1461. With this supposition
agrees the reference to John Paston’s brother, Clement, who, as we
see by No. 484, was in London in October.]
[Footnote 9.1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.]]
493