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Add MS 43490
- Record Id:
- 040-002056404
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002056401
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001102.0x00001d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 43490
- Title:
- Paston Letters and Papers
- Scope & Content:
-
The 3rd of four volumes of letters and papers of the Paston family. The handwritten description on f. 3r states 'This volume contains letters LII to XXXXVII written during the reign of Edward IV from 1473-1483 and also VIII letters written during the reign of Richard III from 1483-1485'.
(Numbers in brackets refer to numbering in Davis, Paston Letters (Early English Text Society, 2004), from which the dates are also drawn).
Contents include:
ff. 4-8, 13-15, 17, 21, 31: Correspondence between John Paston II and John Paston III between 1462 and 1478 (Davis nos 273, 281, 275, 276, 277, 287, 288, 289, 366, 302, 305);
f. 9: Letter from John Paston II to Edmond Paston, his brother, 5 July, 1473 (Davis, 278);
f. 10: Letter from William, 1st Baron Hastings, to Sir John de Middleton and John Paston II, 16 September, 1473 (Davis 770);
ff. 11, 16, 18, 20, 35, 38: Correspondence between Sir John Paston II and Margaret Paston, his mother, 1469-1479 (Davis nos 284, 295, 298, 311, 315);
f. 12: Letter from William Paston III to his brother, John Paston III, 7 March, 1487 (Davis, 409);
ff. 13, 25, 42, 50, 53, 55: Notes in the hand of John Paston III, younger son of John Paston I;
ff. 15v, 26, 39: Correspondence between John Paston III and Margaret Paston, his mother, 1468-1469 (Davis, nos 223, 374, 383);
f. 16: Letter from Margaret Paston to her son, John Paston II, in the handwriting of Richard Calle, 9 August, 1475 (Davis, 225);
f. 22: Letter from Dame Elizabeth Brews, wife of Sir Thomas Brews, to John Paston III, in the hand of Thomas Kela, ?9 February, 1477 (Davis, 791);
ff. 23, 24: Letters from Margery Paston (nee Brews), wife of John Paston III, to her husband, February, 1477 (Davis nos 415, 416);
f. 25: Letter from Thomas Kela to John Paston III, February, 1477 (Davis, 792);
f. 27: Letter from Sir Thomas Brews to Sir John Paston II, 8 March, 1477 (Davis, 773);
f. 33 Letter from Edmund Bedingfield, Knight to Sir John Paston II, 17 August, 1477 (Davis, 777);
ff. 34, 40, 52: Letters from Margaret Paston, wife of John Paston I, to her husband, 1441-1462 (Davis nos 125, 170, 153);
f. 41: Letter from Ralph, 3rd Baron Cromwell, to John Paston I, 10 February, before 1456 (Davis, 515);
f. 42: Letter from Elizabeth de la Pole, wife of John, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and sister of Edward IV to John Paston III, between 1479 and 1483 (Davis, 798);
f. 43: Letter to 'Mistress Annes' (?Stocton) from John Paston III, 22 July, 1474 (Davis, 362);
ff.44: Letter from William, 1st Baron Hastings, to John Paston III, 26 April, ?1483 (Davis, 795);
ff. 48, 53: Letters from John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk to John Paston III: 10 October, 1483, ?12 August, 1485 (Davis nos 799, 801);
f. 49: Letter from John De la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, Constable of Wallingford Castle to Thomas Jeffrey, farmer, of Moundevilles in Sternfield, 1 May, 1484 (Davis, 1051);
f.50: Copy of a proclamation by Richard III of England against Henry Tudor, 1485;
f. 51: Letter from John De la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk; Constable of Wallingford Castle to John Paston III, 20 October, 1485 (Davis 803);
f. 54: Letter from Alice, Lady Fitzhugh, widow of Henry, 5th Baron Fitzhugh to John Paston III, 23 February ?1486 (Davis, 813);
f. 55 Letter from Margaret de Vere, Countess of Oxford, 1st wife of John de Vere to John Paston III, 19 May, ?1486 (Davis, 805).
The verso of each letter has the address and traces of the wax seal visible. Notes on ff. 12, 49 are by Thomas Martin (d. 1771), antiquary of Palgrave
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002056401
040-002056404 - Is part of:
- Add MS 43488-43491 : Paston Letters and Papers
Add MS 43490 : Paston Letters and Papers - Hierarchy:
- 032-002056401[0003]/040-002056404
- 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_43490 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1440
- End Date:
- 1489
- Date Range:
- 1440-1489
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 280 x 440mm; 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, annotated by him (Additional 43488, ff. 7, 15, 31, 32, 42, 52; Additional 43489, ff. 32, 35, Additional 43491, f. 9).
Thomas Martin (d. 1771), antiquary of Palgrave, acquired by him as executor of Peter le Neve and annotated by him on ff. 12, 49.
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)