[Sidenote: 1461]
I recomand me to yow, and lete yow wete that notwythstandyng tydinggs
come down, as ye know, that pepill shuld not come up tyll thei were sent
fore, but to be redy at all tymes; this notwithstandyng, most pepill owt
of this cuntre have take wages, seying thei woll goo up to London; but
thei have no capteyn, ner rewler assigned be the commissioners to awayte
upon, and so thei stragyll abowte be them self, and be lyklynes are not
like to come at London half of them. And men that come from London sey,
there have not passid Thetford, not passyng CCCC.; and yet the townes
and the cuntere that have waged hem shall thynk thei be discharged, and
therfore if this Lords above wayte aftyr more pepill in this cuntre, be
lyklynes it woll not be easy to get with owt a newe comission and
warnyng. And yet it woll be thought ryght straunge of hem that have
waged pepill to wage any more, for every towne hath waged and sent
firth, and are redy to send forth, as many as thei ded whan the Kyng
sent for hem be fore the feld at Lodlowe;[266.1] and thei that ar not
go, be goyng in the same forme.
Item, ther was shrewd rewle toward in this cuntre, for ther was a
certeyn person forth wyth after the jurney at Wakefeld, gadered felaship
to have mo[r]dered John Damme, as is seyd; and also ther is at the
Castell of Rysing, and in other ij. plases, made gret gaderyng of
pepill, and hyryng of harneys, and it is wele undyrstand they be not to
the Kyng ward, but rather the contrary, and for to robbe. Wherfore my
fadyr is in a dowte, whedir he shall send my brother up or not, for he
wold have his owne men abowte hym, if nede were here; but
notwythstandyng, he wyll send up Dawbeney, his spere and bowes with hym,
as Stapilton and Calthrop or other men of worship of this cuntre agree
to doo. Wherfore demene yow in doyng of yowr erandes ther aftyr, and if
ye shall bryng any masage from the Lords, take writyng, for Darcorts
massage is not verely beleved be cause he browt no wrytyng.
Item, this cuntre wold fayne take these fals shrewes that are of an
oppynion contrary to the Kyng and his Counsell, if they had no auctorite
from the Kyng to do so.
Item, my brother is redy[n] to Yarmowth for to lette brybers that wold a
robbed a ship undyr color of my Lord of Warwyk, and longe nothyng to hem
ward.
[Footnote 265.1: [From Fenn, i. 226.] According to Fenn, this
letter is in the original ‘without either date, name, or
direction,’ the contents only proving it to have been written by
‘one of John Paston’s sons.’ Nevertheless, in a very misleading
way, the signature ‘John Paston’ is inserted at the foot of the
right-hand copy, with a reference to a facsimile of the
signature of John Paston the youngest. There is every
appearance, however, that John Paston the youngest really was
the writer, and that the date is, as Fenn supposes, just after
the accession of Edward IV.]
[Footnote 266.1: The battle of Mortimer’s Cross, near Ludlow,
gained by Edward IV. before he was king, on the 3rd February
1461.]
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