[Sidenote: 1464 / APRIL-NOV.]
‘Primum testes reprobatorii producti per Yelverton, contra testes Paston
principaliter productos &c.
‘Facta fuit sequens examinatio testium subscriptorum secrete et
singillatim, videlicet, Domini Johannis Davy capellani vicesimo octavo
die mensis Aprilis, Thomæ Upton quinto, Johannis Bockyng duodecimo,
Nicholai Newman xvj^to diebus mensis Maii; Johannis Loer, Willelmi Eton
quarto, Roberti Lynne quinto, diebus mensis Junii; Bartholomei Elys
tercio, magistri Roberti Wylly sexto, Johannis Marshall, Johannis Davy
terciodecimo et Willelmi Lyne ultimo, diebus mensis Julii; Anno Domini
millesimo quadringentesimo sexagesimo quarto, Indictione duodecima,
pontificatus Sanctissimi in Christo patris et domini nostri, domini Pii
Divina prudencia Papæ Secundi anno sexto, In Domo Thesaurarii ecclesiæ
Cathedralis Sancti Pauli, London, infra parochiam Sancti Gregorii
civitatis London situat’, per venerabilem virum magistrum Johannem
Druell, utriusque juris doctorem, examinatorem et commissarium ad infra
scripta specialiter deputatum. In præsentia mei Nicholai Parker notarii
auctoritate Apostolica, publici scribæ in hac parte de et super
exceptionibus infra scriptis, par partem domini Willelmi Yelverton et
Willelmi Worceter productorum.’
1. John Davy chaplain, staying at the University of Cambridge, _liberæ
conditionis_, 30 years old and more, examined _super exceptionibus
infrascriptis_ of which the tenors are quoted, viz., on the part of
Yelverton and Worceter against John Russe, Robert Cutteler clk., Master
Clement Felmyngham, Rob. Boteler, Ralph Lampet, Brother Will. Bokyngham,
and Master Robert Popy, witnesses on the opposite side, whose testimony
is discredited ‘eo quod parte sua non præsenti juraverunt et super non
juratis deposuerunt, ac in depositionibus suis fuerint et sint varii,
contrarii, singulares negativam asserentes, causas dictorum suorum
minime reddentes, unumque et eundem præmeditatum sermonem proferentes,
a testatore non vocati aut rogati perhibere testimonium, nec
sufficienter probantes in hac parte, prout ex inspectione depositionum
suarum liquere poterit intuenti.’ Further, John Russe was illiterate,
and did not understand Latin when he made his deposition, and he
contradicted the other witnesses on his own side: viz., to the 9th
interrogatory he said, Sir J. Fastolf’s will was not written before his
death, which Clement Felmyngham and Robt. Cutteler in their reply to the
3d said it was. Moreover he expected advantage to himself from his
testimony, and was discharged by Howys of £300 that he owed Fastolf. He
had also secretly abstracted certain muniments and charters of the
testator, which were in the custody of Will. Worceter, in the house of
John Tovy, at Castir, Norwich dioc., in Nov. 1459. Moreover he was
_supravisor et locator_ of the testator’s lands called Akethorpe, yearly
value 9 marks, appointed by Paston or Howys, who promised to sell them
to him much under value for his testimony. Further, his statement that
he was present _in quadam bassa camera_ at Caister between 8 and 9 A.M.
on the Saturday before Sir J. Fastolf’s death, was a perjury, for he was
really all that time in other places a long way off. His declaration
that he was no servant or tenant of those who brought him forward was
untrue: he had hired a house of Howys in the town of Yarmouth, value
40s. a year. He was inconsistent in his testimony about the hour Sir J.
declared his will. He also pretended never to have seen Fastolf’s will
before his death, although he wrote the said pretended will with his own
hand with the date at the head, which at the beginning of this suit he
caused to be cut off from the writing and hidden.
Also the said Rob. Cutteler chaplain, when he made his deposition, was
‘levis opinionis, malæ conscientiæ et de mensa Joh’is Paston ac tenens
ipsius, prout ad primum interrogatorium examinationis suæ primæ et
secundæ respondebat.’ Also he was perjured; because in April 1457 in
par. of Holy Trin., Castir, he beat and maimed one Jo. Flemyng, and
boasted of it (_ac sic factum nomine suo ratum habuit_), but being taken
before Sir J. Fastolf, justice of the peace, he swore he had not done
so.--Proofs that he was not disinterested.
Exceptions to Rob. Popy: He was a tenant of Paston’s, &c. &c.
_Davy_ says John Rus was at Yarmouth on the Saturday in question, as he
usually was on Saturdays, to buy victuals for Fastolf’s house, &c.
(Proof declared insufficient in the margin). Sir J. Fastolf was so ill,
that, as Davy had heard he was unable to speak from 22d Oct. ‘Quæ quidem
infirmitas vocabatur judicio medicorum, _sincope_, quæ ipsum vexabat
singulis horis et ipsum deduxit ad extasim de scientia istius jurati,
qui continue conversabatur cum eo usque ad ipsius mortem.’
2. Thos. Upton, one of the clerks of the King’s kitchen, _literatus_,
‘liberæ conditionis,’ forty years old and over; 2d. witness.
Mentions that W. Worceter gave Jo. Rus a casket to keep containing
certain documents, which Rus delivered to Howys after Fastolf’s death.
Was clerk of the kitchen to Fastolf when Rus used to go on Saturday to
Yarmouth, &c.
9 May. Jo. Bokkyng produced by Jo. Naseby, proctor of Yelverton and
Worceter, before Master Tho. Wynterton, LL.D., auditor of Thomas
Archbishop of Canterbury, at his house in the parish of St. Martin, in
presence of Robert Kent, proctor of John Paston.--Examination committed
to John Druell, LL.D. who on the 12th May examines him secretly in the
house of the treasurer of St. Paul’s.
‘Dicit quod Johannes Tovy quædam munimenta et evidencias[103.1] in
certis bagis et pixidibus contenta quæ Willelmus Worceter eidem Johanni
Tovy liberavit custodienda.’ Rus was and is Howys’ tenant for the house
he lives in. After Fastolf’s death Upton delivered to Clement Felmyngham
a signet or gold ring, ‘ad signandum sigilla dicti domini Johannis
Fastolf,’ in a little bag, which was to be returned ‘post signacionem
hujusmodi,’ but afterwards he said he had lost it. Touchyng brother
W. Bukyngham, it was publicly noised at Yarmouth that Robert Brown,
a chaplain of that town, had killed one Seman Burton, that Bukyngham
knowingly received him, and that by his advice he fled. To the last
exception he says he believes Fastolf did not release Paston from the
payment of the said 4000 marks, ‘quia iste juratus non intellixit in
tota vita sua tantam liberalitatem in dicto domino Johanne Fastolf.’
Fastolf had such difficulty in breathing for five or six days before his
death that he could hardly speak.
* * *
Interrogatories proposed on the part of Paston and Howys, and
administered to witnesses.
‘In primis, interrogetur quilibet testis hujusmodi cujus sit conditionis
et an sit famulus, [104.1]serviens aut tenens partis eum producentis, et
cui parti magis favet partium prædictarum.’ Secondly, whether he be in
the pay of any one. There are six interrogatories in all, and they are
numbered.
Then follow answers of some one, whose name does not appear, to each of
these six interrogatories; and other answers by--
1. Nich. Newman, Usher of the Chamber to Lady Catherine, Duchess of
Norfolk.