Will of Agnes Paston

644

WILL OF AGNES PASTON¹

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 M¹CCCClxvj., 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 iiijd., 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——¹ day of———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
how 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
whiche¹ . .’

¹ [From Paston MSS., B.M.]

¹ Blanks in MS.

     ¹ Here the fragment ends at the bottom of a leaf written only on one side.

1466
SEPT. 16

1466
SEPT. 16

1466
SEPT. 16