Younger and elder
John Paston the Elder and John Paston the Younger:
John Snr's two sons, both imaginatively named John (just to make our lives easier), inherited a legal nightmare centred on the manors of Caister Castle, Coton and Hellesdon (of which the beautiful hunting lodge at Drayton still remains). It is this part of the Paston story which is so colourfully illuminated by the many letters that passed between them and their mother, Margaret. She was still living in her beloved manor at Oxnead. Not only were Sir John Fastolff's heirs still contesting the will, but they were willing to take advantage of the turbulent times to try and get what they wanted by force. On several occasions, the Pastons were constrained to fight for what they now owned, the most dramatic contest being over control of Caister Castle which was resolved only three years before John the Elder's death from plague.
John the Elder was a bit of a dilettante. He spent most of his time hanging around the King's Court in London, for which his mother constantly berated him. It was not simply that his obsession with London lost them control of Caister, but she was also concerned for his safety. On more than one occasion, she urges him to be careful in the plague-infested city. This was especially after they lost their grandmother to the plague in 1479. She was proven right as John the Elder did die of the plague. His brother, John the Younger, tells his mother of the news in November 1479.
November 1479: Margaret learns of her son's death:
November 1479:
Mother... my brother is buried in the White Friars at London. I did not think that it would have been so, for I supposed that he wished to be buried at Bromholm and that caused me to ride so soon to London to arrange his bringing home; and if it had been his will to lie at Bromholm, I would have brought home my grandmother and him together, but that purpose is now void.(John the Younger)
December 1479:
Right worshipful Mother... please it you to understand that whereas ye willed me by pains to hasten out of the foul air that I am in, I must put my faith in God, for here I must remain for a season. And in good faith, I shall never while God sends me life, dread more death than shame. But thanks be to God, the sickness is well ceased here, and also my business putteth away my fear.(John the Younger)
By this, we can be reasonably certain that John the Elder died of the same plague that took his grandmother. He left an illegitimate daughter by Anne Haute, to whom he was betrothed for years but never married.
The rise of the Paston family to the top, and the changes of medieval Society, are shown in stark relief by their decades long battle for Caister Castle.
Published: 2001-01-01
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