[JOHN PASTON] TO JOHN PAMPYNG, RICHARD CALLE, AND WILLIAM WYKES.
[Sidenote: 1463]
Remember my instructions about bills and actions against Debenham by my
tenants at Calcote. Make a ‘remembrance apart’ of the ground on which
every trespass has been committed, whether it be in my lands or in those
of my tenants, and whether the land was holden of me by Calcote Hall
fee, or Freton Hall fee, lest Debenham justify [on the plea that] he
took them elsewhere. As my tenants at Cotton have been compelled to pay
much money to Jenney and Debenham against their wills, I would, as I
have told John Paston the younger, that he should ride to Cotton with
Richard Calle and such friendship as he can get, and demand my duties,
except from those who had been compelled to pay the others. The latter
to take actions next term against Debenham. Will respite them for this
once all they have paid, till it may be recovered by law; that is,
provided they ask it: otherwise, will politicly put them in jeopardy of
losing their farms. Desires Calle to make a roll of the tenants and when
he comes to Cotton enter therein how much cattle has been distrained
from each.
It appears by the last letter that a writ was issued, evidently at
the suit of Debenham, against John Paston, junior, and the other
agents of his father in Suffolk. From the present paper it would
seem that John Paston also instituted a prosecution on behalf of his
tenants against Debenham. We shall find by later letters that these
suits were going on in 1463, and were not terminated in the
beginning of the following year. The MS. from which the above
abstract has been made is a draft with a heading in John Paston’s
hand. On the back are notes of the Statutes of Westminster and of
Richard II. touching _scandalum magnatum_, etc.
[Footnote 71.3: [From Paston MSS., B.M.]]
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