Note 158.1 — THE PASTON LETTERS Henry VII. (continued 2)

[From Sandford’s Paston Genealogy.] William Paston, the uncle of the two Sir Johns, died in 1496, and this letter must have been written either in the year following or between that date and 1503, when Sir Reginald Bray died. William Paston’s will, which will be found in the Appendix, was dated 7th September 1496, and proved on the 28th November following. He married Anne Beaufort, daughter of Edmond, Duke of Somerset, and was therefore uncle to the writer of this letter, Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of King Henry VII. The person to whom the letter is addressed is not named, but it is not unlikely to have been Sir John Paston the second.