Paston Letters

(***Note – As it will be mostly a short notes topic, just a few points from this compilation are more
than enough,

However, for the inquisitive minds, these notes will serve high value in knowing many facts and lives
of people during the medieval times as well as the fascinating story of Paston family, and many other
trivia, insights)

Intro to the letters

- The Paston family are today probably most famous for the letters which they wrote
to each other between 1418 and 1509.

- Paston Letters, is the largest surviving collection of 15th-century England by means

of correspondence through letters. It is preserved mainly in the British Museum.

- Over 1000 letters from that period were found at Oxnead in 1735.

- These letters give us insight into the daily life and troubles of an ambitious family.

The “Paston Letters” exist because generations of Pastons were meticulous in keeping all
their correspondence and eventually passing it on as a family resource.

One of Fastolf’s servants, William Worcester, collected material for personal historical
research (The Boke of Noblesse) as well as evidence for several lawsuits involving Fastolf.

The letters were first transcribed from Medieval English into Modern English in 1787 by
John Fenn and original copies of these transcriptions are still at Oxnead. The original
collection of Paston letters is now in the British Museum.
Why are the letters important?

- The collection remains of outstanding interest to philologists as evidence of

the English language at a crucial period in its development.

- They are the only known collection of personal letters from that period written in
English at a time when most correspondence was written in Latin and most men –
and almost all women – were illiterate.

- For historians, the letters are a primary source for the political history of 15 th-
century England and for the domestic history of medieval English provincial society

- The collection forms an indispensable source for the manners, morals, habits,
customs, and moneys of the people of England at the close of the Middle Ages.

- They show first-hand testimony of the social benefits the plague brought to the
Peasantry.

- The chaotic effects of the Wars of the Roses on the general populace

- And the individual impact that the Black Death (1348) could have on a family.

Lawless Times

These were lawless times, and that meant that families felt free to wage their own armed
campaigns against their neighbours, knowing that they were quite likely to escape any legal
sanction for doing so.

Content of the letters

The Pastons involved in the letters include William (d. 1444), who became a Justice of the
Court of Common Pleas;
His son John I (d. 1466), a London lawyer;
John’s two sons, John II (d. 1479) and John III (d. 1503), both of whom were knighted; and
their respective wives and children.
The collection of more than 1,000 items contains legal records, local and national news,
and gossip; through all this, the characters of the writers emerge vividly.

Reasons for the Preservation of Letters

Reasons for the initial preservation of the letters must include the desirability, in
the litigious world of 15th-century Norfolk, of possessing all possible evidence that might
be valuable in lawsuits;

How were they discovered and preserved?

How the Paston Letters were kept from the 15th to the 18th century is unknown, but in 1735
Francis Bloomefield (A historian) explored the muniment room (One that has several
records and documents) at Oxnead, which was the Paston family’s seat in Norfolk.
He preserved letters judged “of good consequence in history,” these eventually being
acquired by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the British Museum.
John Fenn of East Dereham, Norfolk, edited four volumes of Original Letters (1787–89
The collection was reedited by James Gairdner as The Paston Letters, 1422–1509 in six
volumes in 1904.

The Language of the Paston Letters

The Paston Letters are not only regarded as a vital historical resource for understanding the
minutiae*(muh-nyoo-shy) of 15th-century politics in rural England but are also treasured by
scholars of the English language for the evidence they present of how the English of ordinary
people was evolving at the time.

*the small, precise, or trivial details of something

It is not difficult to see that the 14th-century English of Geoffrey Chaucer is very different
from that written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century. But what was it like during the
intervening century? The Paston Letters — which were not written as “Literature” — provide
many clues.

At a time when there was little consensus over the spelling of English words, it is important
to overlook what look to us as odd spellings. If you ignore these, and simply read the words
as they appear on the page, the language begins to look surprisingly modern.

Here is an example of how someone at that time would have written and spoken (from a
letter written by Margaret Paston to John Paston in 1461 while the latter was an inmate of
the Fleet Prison* in London):

*Located next to the Fleet River in the City of London, the Fleet was a debtors' prison.
Ryth worchepfull husbond, I recomand me to yow. Plesyt yow to wet that I receyvyd yowyr
lettyr that ye sent me by John Holme on Wednysday last past, and also I receyvvd a nothyr
lettyr on Fryday at nyt, that ye sent me by Nycolas Newmanys man, of the whyche lettyrs I
thanc yow; for I schold ellys a’ thowt that it had be wers with yow than it hathe be, or schal
be, by the grace of Almyty God. And yet I kowd not be mery, sethyn I had the last lettyr tyll
thys day that the Meyir sent to me, and sent me werd that he had knowlege for very trowthe
that ye wer delyveryd owt of the Flet, and that Howard was comytyd to ward for dyvers gret
compleynts that wer mad to the Kyng of hym.

History and Legacy of the Pastons

The story of the Pastons is a fascinating and compelling tale of a family on the make in the
wake of the Black Death.

Their story is one of visionary gamblers willing to stake all on massive throws of the dice,
and to fight against the carping villagers of their home manor or the overweening power
of the local lord.

William, his sons, and his grandsons became wealthy lawyers, which allowed the family to
rise to the gentry* rank during the fifteenth century.
From humble peasant beginnings, their impact on the county became so great that even
today, there is an old Norfolk saying:

‘‘There was never a Paston poor, a Heydon a coward or a Cornwallis a fool’.”

*People of good social position, specifically the class of people next below the nobility in position
and birth

While their husbands and sons were away in London practicing law, the Paston women ran
the estate and dealt in family matters
The Paston letter and document collection, which dates between 1422 and 1509, provides
valuable evidence of land struggles, wealth acquisition, love interests, and family drama
that the Pastons encountered during this time.

In the 1420’s Oxnead became the principal home of the Paston family and they continued
to live at Oxnead for over 350 years until 1732. From humble origins, the Pastons went on
to become one of the most eminent and possibly the richest family in England.

They were Royalists and successive generations served in the Royal courts and Palaces
and fought to defend the Monarchy. In the 16th century, Sir Clement Paston, was referred
to by Henry VIII as his ‘champion’ and Elizabeth 1 st called Sir Clement her ‘Father’.

Throughout the generations the Pastons were great patrons of the arts and collectors

Important Family Members of the Pastons through the Generations

Clement Paston
The great-granddaddy of them all, Clement was a yeoman* who took advantage of the
Black Death to build up a substantial landholding in and around Norfolk.
Seeing which way the wind was blowing, he had the foresight to borrow enough money to
send his son, William, to school, where he was educated in the law.
This farsighted gamble was to establish the fortunes of his family for generations to come.

*a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder.

William Paston
Born in 1378, Clement’s son, William, survived the many Plagues of Children to be
educated in the law. This was the making of the Paston family.
It is with William that the fortunes of the Pastons really took off,
William was able to use his position as a lawyer to become a Serjeant-at-arms* and
eventually a Judge of Common Pleas.**

*An official of a legislative assembly whose duty includes maintaining order and security.

**Judge of the Primary court of England which came under the Chief Justice and dealt with local civil
matters

His position allowed him to make a very judicious marriage to Agnes Berry, which
substantially increased his family’s land.
Their favourite residence was the beautiful manor of Oxnead, which still nestles in a little
nook of the Norfolk countryside.

John Paston Senior and Margaret Paston

William’s oldest son was born on 10 October 1421, grew up to be educated in the law at
Cambridge.
He, too, made a very advantageous marriage to Margaret Mauteby, gaining the manors of
Mauteby and East Tuddenham.
John and Margaret were major figures in the county. He was both MP and JP (Justice of
Peace) for Norfolk,
It was John Snr who took the great gamble that almost destroyed his family, but it
ultimately secured its position and lifted it beyond the ranks of the squirearchy #.
This had been achieved in just two short generations after peasanthood!
As a lawyer, he spent a great deal of time in London, where he made friends with the local
Norfolk knight and landowner, Sir John Fastolff – a Lollard* sympathiser and the real-life
Falstaff** of Shakespeare’s plays
It is probably no coincidence that, having wormed his way into the ailing knight’s
confidence and become his lawyer, John Paston miraculously found himself the main
beneficiary of Sir John Fastolff’s will!

# Social rank above Gentleman and below Knight

*Proto-Protestant Christian religious movement, followed the teachings of John Wycliff (Translated the Bible
into Vernacular English)

**Falstaff appears in three of Shakespeare's plays: Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and The Merry Wives of
Windsor (His death is mentioned in Henry V).

Sir Falstolff’s cheated heirs, most notably Sir William Yelverton, Thomas Howes and the de
la Poles, didn’t believe it, and contested the will.
(Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk)

John Snr’s two sons, both imaginatively named John (just to make our lives easier),
inherited a legal nightmare centred on the manors of Caister Castle, Coton and Hellesdon.

It is this part of the Paston story which is so colourfully illuminated by the many letters
that passed between them and their mother, Margaret. She was still living in her beloved
manor at Oxnead.

John the Elder was a bit of a dilettante*(Diley tanti). He spent most of his time hanging
around the King’s Court in London, for which his mother constantly berated him. It was
not simply that his obsession with London lost them control of Caister, but she was also
concerned for his safety. On more than one occasion, she urges him to be careful in the
plague-infested city. She was proven right as John the Elder did die of the plague. His
brother, John the Younger, tells his mother of the news in November 1479.

*a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge.

November 1479: Margaret learns of her son’s death:

November 1479:
Mother... my brother is buried in the White Friars at London. I did not think that it would
have been so, for I supposed that he wished to be buried at Bromholm and that caused me
to ride so soon to London to arrange his bringing home; and if it had been his will to lie at
Bromholm, I would have brought home my grandmother and him together, but that
purpose is now void. (John the Younger)
December 1479:
Right worshipful Mother... please it you to understand that whereas ye willed me by pains
to hasten out of the foul air that I am in, I must put my faith in God, for here I must remain
for a season. But thanks be to God, the sickness is well ceased here, and also my business
putteth away my fear. (John the Younger)

The rise of the Paston family to the top, and the changes of medieval Society, are shown
in stark relief by their decades long battle for Caister Castle.

17th century

Sir William’s son, Robert Paston was made the first Earl* of Yarmouth, and his son,
another Sir William, married King Charles II’s natural daughter.

*a British nobleman ranking above a viscount and below a Marquess

Marquess (Maakwas)- a British nobleman ranking above an Earl and below a Duke.

Viscount (Vai count) - a British nobleman ranking above a Baron and below an Earl.

Baron - a member of the lowest order of the British nobility

(Barons usually being referred to as “Lord.”)

Within the upper class were kings/monarchs, nobles, knights, and clergy. In the middle were
merchants, doctors, and lower clergy. The lower class consisted of peasants/serfs.

 Top: The King

 Next: The nobles, which included the Dukes
 Next: The Nobility, which included the Viscounts and Barons
 Next: The Knights
 Bottom: The peasants and serfs

In 1671, Charles II and his Queen were guests of the Paston family at Oxnead, and records
document the lavish hospitality and extravagance of the occasion.

The King and Queen enjoyed their visit saying that they felt

‘Safe in the house of his friend’.

Sadly, following the King’s visit, the Paston family ran into debt, and when Sir William
Paston died in 1732 with no living male heir, Oxnead and its contents were sold by his
Executors. Items from Oxnead are today scattered throughout Norfolk, the UK and the
world.

About the letters

The correspondence details the struggles, achievements and feelings of family members
and give an invaluable insight into life in the 15th century. Many of the sentiments and
concerns are fully recognisable today, as illustrated in these excerpts of letters from the
1440’s.

Excerpts from the Letters

15th Century Paston Letters

The Paston women write prolifically not only about personal matters, but about politics,
disputes, legal matters, construction work and warfare.

In 1445 Agnes Paston writes to her son Edmond requesting building materials “find out how
many joists will suffice for the parlour and the chapel at Paston, and what length they
need to be and what breadth and thickness they need to be. Because it was your father’s
wish …that they should be nine inches one way and nine the other way, and therefore
arrange that they are squared and sent here for none of this kind can be had here in this
region.”

And in 1448 Margaret Paston writes to her husband John. In his absence she was defending
their house in Gresham against enemies and needs crossbows and arrows “For your house
here is so low that there may no man shoot out with a long bow…and also I would that
you should get two or three short pole axes…and as many jacks (a form of body armour)
as you may”
A little later in the 1400’s the first known Valentines letter was written by Margery Brews to
her fiancé John Paston. In her letter of Feb 14th 1477 she describes the pain she feels in
being separated from him.

“Right reverend and worshipful and my right well-beloved Valentine, I recommend me

unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God
long for to preserve….And if it pleases you to hear how I am, I am not in good health, in
body nor in heart, nor will be until I hear from you. For no one knows what pain it is I
suffer and even on pain of death I dare not disclose it. But if you love me, as I truly believe
you do, you will not leave me…because even if you did not have half the wealth that you
do, and I had to undertake the greatest toil that any women alive should, I would not
forsake you….I will indeed do everything in my power to love you and no one else
ever….My heart commands me to love you truly above all earthly things for evermore.”

17th Century Paston Letters

Though not as well known or historically as valuable as the 15 th century Paston letters, the
letters written in Robert Paston’s time (1635 – 1683) are of great interest and shed a
fascinating light on the plight of the Paston family at Oxnead.

By the time of Robert’s birth in 1631 the Paston family were the richest gentry family in
Norfolk. They achieved an earldom and the lord lieutenancy* of the county in the 1670’s but
only sixty years later they had completely disappeared, failing to survive what Robert called
a “whirlpool of misadventure”.

Their much-loved house at Oxnead was demolished in 1732 and everything on the estate
was sold to pay their extensive debts. Robert’s letters were written between 1663 and 1679
and cover the period in which King Charles II visited Robert at Oxnead. Most of the letters
are now held at the Norfolk records office.

Lieutenant (Leftinant) - A lord-lieutenant is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy
area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In
1871, the lieutenant's responsibility over the local militia was removed.
Robert married Rebecca Clayton in 1651 and they enjoyed a long and happy marriage,
despite their financial woes.

“When I take the penn in my hand to you I can never leave off, methinks I am conversing
with you which to mee is the most pleasantest conversation in the world and the greatest
joy I have in itt and expectation of your letters are the best expectation I have and the
reading of them the pleasantest moments” – Robert Paston
Robert was a man of culture and scholarship with a keen interest in philosophy and
alchemy. He undertook extensive grand tours of Europe accompanied by William Stone’s
son, and also spent a great deal of time searching for the philosopher’s stone which was
believed to turn base metal into gold.

Robert inherited the large house and beautifully embellished gardens at Oxnead and lived
there as his principle home. In 1675 it was described by Lady Bedingfeld as:

“a terrestrial paradise: the gardens so sweet: so full of flowers, and so pleasant: the hous
so cleane and so magnificient….nor did I ever in my life find anything in poetry or painting
half so fine as what I saw at your house”.

Robert’s lavish expenditure reached a peak with the visit of King Charles II in 1671. No
trouble or expense was spared to make Oxnead the highlight of the King and Queen’s tour
and vast accounts were run up with suppliers and trades.
When the King commented that he was “safe in the house of his friend” – the expense must
have seemed justified, but Robert, who had already been heavily in debt, declared that he
had spent three times the dowry of an earl’s daughter on the visit.

In return for Robert’s lavish entertainment at Oxnead, and his sustained support for the
King, Charles II rewarded Robert generously but even this was not enough to stop the
“whirlpool of misadventure”.

The financial ruin of the family can be attributed to various causes, including:
- The lavish building and alterations to Oxnead, the costly grand tours,
- The accumulation of the Paston Treasures,
- The fines under the Commonwealth, financial support for the King when he was in
exile.
 - The King’s visit to Oxnead,
- Robert’s position as lord lieutenant, and
- The cost of Rebecca’s house in London.

By the 1680’s Robert Paston was in financial ruin and with both his sons having
predeceased him, the magnificent house at Oxnead was demolished and everything was
sold to pay his debts.

Margaret Paston:

Margaret Paston: A 15th-century Englishwoman made Famous by Her Letters

She was a major contributor to the “Paston Letters” (more than 100)

History tells us little about the lives of women in 15th-century England, apart from
members of royal or aristocratic families.

One notable exception is that of Margaret Paston (c.1420–82), about whom we know a
considerable amount thanks to the remarkable preservation of more than 100 letters written
by her, as well as others written to her, and between other members of her family.

Born as Margaret Mautby, her family were “lords of the manor” of Mautby in Norfolk. The
Mautbys were certainly well-to-do, which was enough to class Margaret, when adult and
married, as a “gentlewoman”. She was not from the top drawer of society, but not from
many drawers further down.

Her marriage, which was arranged by her family, was to John Paston, a lawyer with an
extensive practice that frequently took him to London, which was one reason for the many
communications by letter that took place.

John Paston’s estate was at Gresham, to the north of Norwich, the family seat being
Gresham Castle, a fortified and moated manor house dating back to the early 14th century —
very little of it remains to be seen today.

The complete sequence of letters (more than 1,000 in total, written by different generations
of the family) spans the reigns of Kings Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII. These
were tumultuous years, including the struggle between the royal houses of York and
Lancaster known to history as the Wars of the Roses, ending with the death in battle of King
Richard III and the start of the Tudor dynasty.
These events feature in many of the letters during the time when Margaret Paston was
active, but they cover much more than just political affairs. Out of the collection, 104 have
been attributed to Margaret, and they cover matters concerning the upbringing and
education of her children (there were seven of them), household management, and affairs
concerning the management of the Paston estate.

“The Paston Pedigree*”

(The recorded ancestry, especially upper-class ancestry)

Domestic Responsibilities

A 15th-century gentlewoman such as Margaret Paston had many things to occupy her time,
seeing that she was responsible for running a household of considerable and fluctuating size.
Those responsibilities included catering and clothing, some of which, such as buying goods
for special occasions such as religious holidays, needed orders to be made well in advance.

She would have been responsible for the operation of the brewhouse, the bakery, the home
farm, and the dairy. She had to oversee the preservation of perishable goods and the making
of new clothes from cloth. This all required considerable administrative ability, which is
apparent in much of the detail that can be read in the letters, which include instructions from
her absent husband and her replies to tell him what had and had not been done.

As if that was not enough, the state of the country had a considerable impact on the fortunes
of the Paston family.

In the case of the Pastons, that led, in 1448, to violence when Robert Hungerford, Lord
Moleyns, forced his claim to the Pastons’ estate at Gresham. John Paston was present at the
time and was able to gain repossession, but that was not the case two years later when
Moleyns sent 1,000 armed men to Gresham Castle and Margaret was forcibly evicted.

There was no way that Margaret was going to give up without a fight, and she appealed to
the local justices to take action, which they eventually did, so Margaret was able to regain
her home.

The Pastons had a strong supporter in Sir John Fastolf, a powerful Norfolk soldier and
landowner. If the name sounds familiar, it should do — some characteristics of Sir John found
their way into William Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff.

Sir John Fastolf died in 1459, leaving his affairs in considerable disarray. John Paston claimed
that Sir John had changed his will shortly before his death, leaving all his estates in Norfolk
and Suffolk to John Paston. Not surprisingly, this claim was challenged, not least by both the
Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk.

The Pastons came out of the affair quite well, with John Paston, now a Member of
Parliament, coming under the protection of King Edward IV.

The inside story of all the ins and outs can be read in the Paston Letters, with Margaret
Paston being a major player.

John Paston died in 1466, which meant that his and Margaret’s eldest son, another John,
now became the owner of the estate with Margaret still being highly influential in everything
that went on.

Margaret Paston died in 1482, aged around 62. Her life experiences were certainly
exceptional, but in many respects were not untypical of what many other gentlewomen at
the time would have known. Survival meant being able to cope with whatever was thrown
at one, and a great deal was thrown at Margaret Paston during those times.
There is so much we can learn about the past from looking directly at the words of people as
they were written in “real-time”. There is as much emotion, angst, joy, or whatever,
conveyed in a letter written in haste by a woman in 1461 as one could find in any text
message today.

Given that we have such direct access to the actions and personality of someone who lived
more than 500 years ago, it is tempting to compare Margaret Paston with people who might
be around at the present time.

Who does she most remind one of?

One has to think of strong-willed women who stand no-nonsense and are probably not
people one would want to get on the wrong side of. That suggests someone who has risen
through the ranks to take a senior management position in a fairly large company but is
also able to manage their time so that they are able to pay proper attention to family
matters.

A modern Margaret Paston would not be afraid to make decisions that others would
hesitate. She weighed up the pros and cons speedily and always applied logic to what she
decided to do, then saw the course of action through to the end.

Would Margaret Paston have been someone whom one would have wanted to know? If
so, she would have been a good friend but a bad enemy — always loyal to family and close
friends, the number of whom would have been limited, but not someone to take
advantage of.

Yes — there are many Margaret Pastons around today. We probably all know several!