Note 78.1 — THE PASTON LETTERS Richard III.
Reading edition
[From Fenn, ii. 330.] Fenn supposes with great probability that this letter was written in 1484, the year of Margaret Paston’s death. No earlier date is possible, seeing that even in 1484 John Paston’s eldest son was only in his seventh year, and he had at the date of this letter two sons capable of being sent on messages; so that, if anything, we should be inclined to put it later. But we know of no later death in the family that could have occasioned the writing of such a letter, and the time of Margaret Paston’s death and of the proving of her will agree very well with Fenn’s hypothesis. From the calendar prefixed to an old MS. missal in the possession of the late Mr. C. W. Reynell, I found that she died on the 4th November 1484. Her will was proved at Norwich on the 18th December following.
78.2 Widow of William Lovel, Lord Morley, who died the 26th of July 1476.—F.
79.1 Sir Miles Stapleton died in 1466. His widow Catherine seems to have married in the following year Sir Richard Harcourt of Ellenhale (Blomefield, ix. 321), but, according to a practice not uncommon at that time, she may have retained the name of Lady Stapleton.
79.2 ‘Places of worship’; i.e., in families of distinction.
79.3 To make up accounts.