[Sidenote: 1466 / SEPT. 16]
To all to whom this present writting xal come, I, Agnes Paston, late the
wife of William Paston, Justice, send greting in God everlasting, lating
hem know that I, the forseid Agnes, of goode and hole mende, the xvj.
day of Septembre, the vj. yere of the reigne of Kyng E. the iiij^th and
the yere of our Lord a M^{l}CCCClxvj., make and ordeyne my last will in
al the maners, londes, tenementes, rentes, services, mesuages, and
places, that ony person or persones bene seased of to myn use and behof
with in Norwiche, Norffolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshere, or in any
other shere with in Englond, praying and desiring al the personez so
feffed to myn use, after this my will, writtyn and inceled under my
seale, be shewed unto them, that they wol make astate to the persones
lemited in my seid will according.
And inasmoche as myn husbond, whos soule God assoile, dyverse tymes, and
specialy among other the day of the moneth, rehersed to me that the
lyvelod whiche he had assigned to his ij. yongest, William and Clement,
by his will in writting, was so littill that they mizt not leve thereon,
withouzt they shuld hold the plowe to the tayle; and ferthermore, seying
that he had dyvers oder maners, that is to say, the maner of Sporle,
Sweynsthorp, and Bekham; which maner of Bekham he was purposed to
chaunge with the maner of Pagrave; and if he myzt bring it abouzt, then
xuld on of his ij. yongest sones have the seid maners of Sporle and
Bekham, and no more, and the other yongest sone xuld have al the
remenaunt. And he that had the maner of Sweynsthorp xuld be bound in a
gret some to the prior of the Abbey of Norwiche, to paie dayly for ever
to the monke that for that day singeth the masse of the Holy Goste in
our Lady Chapell in Norwiche, where he purposed to leye his body, every
day iiij_d._, to sing and pray for his sowle and myn, and al the sowles
that he and I have hade any goode of or be beholdyn to pray for. And
after that the ----[250.1] day of --------[250.1] next folowing my seid
husbond lying seke in his bed, in the presens of John Paston, his sone
and myn, John Bakton, John Dame, and of me, declared his will towching
certein of his children and me, at whiche tyme he assigned to the seid
John Paston the maner of Gressham in honde, and the revercion of suche
lyvelode as he zave me after my decesse, askyng hym the question wheder
he held hym not content so, seying to him in these termes, ‘Sir, and
thow do not I doo, for I will not geve so mekyll to on that the
remenaunt xal have to littill to leve on. At the whiche[251.1] . .’
[Footnote 249.1: [From Paston MSS., B.M.]]
[Footnote 250.1: Blanks in MS.]
[Footnote 251.1: Here the fragment ends at the bottom of a leaf
written only on one side.]
645