Norfolk Archaeology, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to the Antiquities of the County of Norfolk (Volume 3) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852. Excerpt: ... THE WILL OF MARGARET PASTON, KliSoto of 3ohn paston, ( sq. COMMCMCATED BY DAWSON TURNER, ESQ., V.P. Our worthy member, Mr. Henry Boulter, always alive to what may amuse, improve, or assist others, having permitted me to submit to the Society the following Will, I have felt that the importance of the instrument, no less than of the individual, required that it should not go forth unaccompanied by annotations. The testamentary disposition of the property of a Norfolk lady of wealth and station in the fifteenth century, could not but be a fit medium for illustrating the manners and customs of the times; as also for gathering together the scattered notices of one of the principal county families, long since swept off from the face of the earth, "their ruins ruined, and their place no more." The Will itself was known to Blomefield, who has quoted portions of it under the head of the parish of Mautby. It will here be found entire, from a copy that belonged to Martin, the historian of Thetford, and is headed, in his own handwriting, "A Transcript from two fair Rolls of Parchment, sewed together, which appear, from certain marks in the margin, to have been made use of by the Executors." "The original," he adds, "is preserved in Registro Caston." Of John Paston, the husband of the testatrix, little more needs here be said--for the Paston Letters and the Historical Sketch of Caister Castle abound with details of him--than that he was the son of Sir William Paston, "the good judge," and studied law in the Inner Temple, and was one of the executors of Sir John Fastolf, and heir of his property at vol. Hi. N Caistcr; the obtaining and holding possession of which was attended with painful difficulties, originating in the unfounded claims of a no less powerful riva...