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Add MS 43489
- Record Id:
- 040-002056403
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002056401
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001102.0x00001c
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 43489
- Title:
- Paston Letters and Papers
- Scope & Content:
-
The 2nd of four volumes in this series of letters and papers of the Paston family. The handwritten description on f. 3r states 'This volume contains the first XXII letters written during the reign of Edward IV from 1460-1467'.
(Numbers in brackets refer to numbering in Davis, Paston Letters (Early English Text Society, 2004), from which the dates are also drawn).
Contents include:
f. 4: Letter from William Paston II, son of William Paston I, to his brother John Paston I, 4 April, 1461 (Davis, 90);
f. 5: Letter from Thomas Playter or Plaiter to John Paston I, 18 April, 1461 (Davis, 625);
f. 6: Draft of a letter written by William Lomner on behalf of John Paston III perhaps to Thomas Playter, March, 1461 (Davis 317);
f. 7: Letter from Thomas Playter or Plaiter to John Paston I, June, 1461 (Davis, 631);
f. 8: Letter from James Gresham to John Paston I, 21 June, 1461 (Davis, 635);
ff. 9, 10: Letters from John Berneye of Witchingham to John Paston I, and William Rokewode, 10 July and 16th July, 1461 (Davis, 637, 638);
f. 11: Letter from Henry Wyndesore or Windsor to John Paston I, 4 October, 1461 (Davis, 646);
f. 13: Drafts of letters of John Paston II and III in the handwriting of William Lomner;
f. 14: Letter from John Wykes, usher of the King's Chamber, to John Paston I, 25 March, 1462 (Davis, 664);
f. 15: Letter from John Mowth, friar, to John Paston 1, 12 May, 1466 (Davis, 693);
ff. 16, 17: Letters from John Russe to John Paston I, September-October, 1462 (Davis, 675, 676);
f. 18: Letter from John Paston III to his father, John Paston I, 1 November, 1462 (Davis, 319);
f. 19: Letter from Thomas Playter to John Paston I, July, 1462 (Davis, 674);
f. 20: Letter from John Paston III to his brother, John Paston II, 11 December, 1462 (Davis, 320);
f. 21: Letter from Henry Berry, monk of St Augustine's, Canterbury, to John Paston I, 28 January, ?1464 (Davis, 682);
f. 22: Letter from John Paston III to his father, John Paston I , 1 March, 1464 (Davis, 321);
ff. 31, 38, 47, 49, 50, 52, 55: Letters from John Paston III to his brother, John Paston II (Davis nos 357, 264, 267-49;352-50; 354-52,
f. 25: Letter from William Paston III to John Paston III, 23 February, 1479 (Davis, 407);
f. 29: Letter from Jakys Hawte to John Paston II, 22 May, 1469 (Davis, 760);
f. 30: Letter from John Aubry, Mayor of Norwich to Henry Spelman, 6 July, 1469 (Davis, 1044);
f. 31: Letter from John Paston II to John Paston III, June, 1469 (Davis, 240);
f. 32: Safe conduct from the Duke of Norfolk to the garrison of Caister, Norfolk;
f. 33: Letter from John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, Lord High Admiral, to John Paston II, 18 July, 1469 (Davis, 762);
f. 35: Letter from George Nevill, Archbishop of York to John Paston II, 7 May, 1468-9 (Davis, 758)
f. 36: A letter to John Paston III from a 'cosyn', 27 March, 1470 (Davis, 787);
ff. 37-39: Copies of correspondence between Edward IV, Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, George, Duke of Clarence and George Nevill, Archbishop of York, 1469;
f. 40: Letter from John Paston III to his mother, Margaret Paston, 12 October, 1470 (Davis, 345);
f. 41: Letter from John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, to his brother Sir Thomas de Vere, 14 March, 1471 (Davis, 1047);
f. 42: Letter from Henry Spelman, to John de Vere, 1471;
f. 43: Letter from James Gresham to John Paston II, April, 1471 (Davis, 766);
f. 44: Letter from John Paston II to his mother, Margaret Paston, 18 April, 1471 (Davis 261);
f. 45: Copy of a letter, probably from from John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, to Margaret de Vere, his first wife, in the hand of John Paston III, 1471 (Davis, 915);
f. 47: Letter from John Paston II to John Paston III, 28 September, 1471 (Davis, 264);
f. 49: Letter from John Paston II to John Paston III, 17 Febuary, 1472 (Davis, 267);
f. 51: Letter in the name of James Arblaster to John Carenton, Bailiff of Maldon, 20 September, 1472 (Davis, 354A);
f. 55: Letter written by John Paston II to John Paston III, 3 February, 1473 (Davis, 272).
The verso of each letter has the address and traces of the wax seal visible. The letters on ff. 35 and 35 were annotated by Francis Blomefield (d. 1752), historian of Norfolk.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002056401
040-002056403 - Is part of:
- Add MS 43488-43491 : Paston Letters and Papers
Add MS 43489 : Paston Letters and Papers - Hierarchy:
- 032-002056401[0002]/040-002056403
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 43488-43491
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A collection of letters and papers, bound together, 58 folios
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_43489 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1440
- End Date:
- 1489
- Date Range:
- 1440-1489
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
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- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 280 x 440 mm; the dimensions of the letters and papers vary.
Foliation: ff. 58 (+ 5 unfoliated paper endleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end; three paper leaves have been mounted onto the third, fourth and fifth front endleaves, and contain a typed list of contents). A bookplate has been pasted onto f. 1v and is foliated as f. i.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. BM/BL in-house. Fragments of the spine of a former binding are attached to the inside upper cover.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
William Paston (b. 1653/4, d. 1732) 2nd Earl of Yarmouth, by descent through the Paston family.
Peter le Neve (d. 1729), collector and antiquary, purchased by him from William Paston (see Gairdner, Paston Letters (1900) I, p. 4).
Rev. Francis Blomefield (d. 1752), historian of Norfolk, letters annotated by him on ff. 32, 35.
Thomas Martin (d. 1771), antiquary of Palgrave, acquired by him as executor of Peter le Neve and annotated by him (Additional 43490, ff. 12, 49; Additional 43491, f. 26).
John Worth, chemist of Diss, sold by him in 1774 to John Fenn (see Gairdner, Paston Letters (1900) I, p. 6).
John Fenn (b. 1739, d. 1794), antiquary, rebound and published by him in the first two volumes of his five-volume Original Letters; his armorial bookplate on f. 1v; he recorded that the manuscripts of Volumes I and II were presented by him to King George III at St James's Palace on 23 May 1787 and were in the Royal Library in 1789, though there is no further evidence for this (see the editorial in The Athenaeum, 29 March, 1890, p. 405, in Davis, Paston Letters, II (2004), p. xxix).
Sir George Pretyman-Tomline, (b. 1750, d. 1827) Bishop of Lincoln and private secretary to William Pitt the younger (b. 1759, d.1806), prime minister, possibly acquired by him from Pitt (see Gairdner, Paston Letters (1900) I, pp. 10-11).
Colonel George Tomline (d. 1889), grandson of Sir George Pretyman-Tomline; discovered in his library at Orwell Park, Suffolk after his death (see The Athenaeum, 29 March, 1890, p. 405).
The Right Honourable Ernest George Pretyman (b. 1860, d. 1931), Secretary to the Admiralty, cousin of Colonel Tomline, by descent and advertised in his sale catalogue of 'One hundred and fifty-five Original letters known as the Paston letters', Sotheby's, London, 1 April 1931. The reserve of £15 000 was not reached and they were bought in at £6500.
Bought by the British Museum in 1933 for £3000 with the aid of contributions from the Friends of the National Libraries. Rearranged and rebound in four volumes (now Additionals 43488-43491) in 1947/8.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Original Letters, written during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III..., ed. by John Fenn, 5 vols (London, Robinsons, 1787-1823), vols I and II (1787).
The Paston Letters, 1422-1509 A.D., ed. by James Gairdner, 4 vols (Westminster, 1900-1901); 6 vols (London and Exeter, 1904).
H.S. Bennett: The Pastons and their England: Studies in an Age of Transition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1937).
Norman Davis, 'A Scribal Problem in the Paston Letters', English and Germanic Studies, 4 (1952), 31-64.
David Stoker, ''Innumerable letters of good consequence in history': the discovery and first publication of the Paston letters', The Library, 6th series 17 (1995), 107–55.
Colin Richmond, The Paston family in the fifteenth century, 3 vols (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996-2001).
The Paston women: Selected letters: trans. by Diane Watt (Cambridge; D.S. Brewer, 2004).
Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, ed. by Norman Davis, 3 vols, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series, 20-22 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [an edition of the texts in this and other manuscripts, with notes and additional bibliography].
Alexander Bergs, Social networks and historical sociolinguistics: Studies in morphosyntactic variation in the Paston letters, 1421-1503 (Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter, 2005).
Joel T. Rosenthal, Margaret Paston: ?1422-1484 (Dereham, Norfolk: Larks Press, 2009).
Jukka Tyrkkö, 'The positioning of adverbial clauses in the Paston letters' in Meaning in the history of English: Words and Texts in Context, ed. by Andreas H. Jucker, Daniela Landert, Annina Seiler and Nicole Studer-Joho (Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2013), pp. 211-28.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)