The rise of the Pastons

What were the routes to social mobility in late medieval England?

• Agriculture• Trade• Law• Church• Other professions / service• War• Marriage

The Paston story

• Clement Paston (d. 1419)– (1458-60 document)– William’s will refers to ‘a messuage, a mill, lands,

tenements, rents and services in Paston, Edingthorpe, Witton, and Mundesley’ and nearby vills

– Marriage– Education– Clement’s will

• Background: social and agrarian change after the Black Death– More land available (through death of tenants,

and because lords began to lease their own demesnes, rather than cultivate them)

– More active land market– Emergence of a clearer village elite in some places

• We see daily how husbandmen of the country, through their diligence, rise daily higher in state of civility, so that their issue attain to nobility – Nicholas Upton, 1447

Chaucer’s Sergeant of the Law

For his science and for his heigh renoun,Of fees and robes hadde he many oon.So greet a purchasour was nowher noon:Al was fee symple to hym in effect;His purchasyng myghte nat been infect.

[For his knowledge and for his excellent reputation He had many grants of yearly income. There was nowhere so great a land-buyer: In fact, all was unrestricted possession to him; His purchasing could not be invalidated.]

William Paston

• Career– Attorney in court of Common Pleas by 1406– Legal counsel at Norwich, 1411, Yarmouth, 1415,

Bishop’s Lynn, etc.– Justice of the Peace for Norfolk, 1418– ?1418 – created serjeant-at-law– 1429 – created justice of Common Pleas

The legal profession

• Judges: about 8 (c. £250 p.a.)• Serjeants-at-law: about 6 (c. £300 p.a.)• Apprentices-at-law (barristers): about 100 (?c.

£60 p.a.)• Large number of other solicitors, attorneys

etc. (?c. £5 p.a.)

William Paston

• Land– Inheritance (i) from Clement Paston (d. 1419) (ii)

from Geoffrey Somerton (d.1416)• Purchase– What– Where– How

• Lands in Bacton, Paston etc. - acquired ??? • Oxnead manor - acquired 1419• Manors of Shipden and Ropers in Crowmer -

acquired by 1426• Gresham manor – acquired 1427• Latimers manor in Bacton – reversion acquired

1427-8 • Manors of Woodhall (in Great Palgrave) and

Sporle - acquired c. 1430

• East Beckham: (defective) title to manor acquired c.1434

• Swainsthorp manor: acquired c. 1440

• Sporle and Swainsthorp: held by childless widow of Walter Garleck

• East Beckham• The land market

William Paston

• Marriage– In 1420 when William was 42– To Agnes Barry, daughter and heiress of Edmund

Barry of Orwellbury, Herts.– Her inheritance: manors of Marlingford (Norf.),

Stansted (Suff.), Orwellbury

William Paston and social mobility

• Law• Land• Marriage• Situation at William’s death

• Why was the law so important to social mobility (how important was it?)

• Demographics after the Black Death: increased social mobility?

William Paston

• Lordship– Background: manorial structure (in Norfolk)– Creating a manor at Paston• chapel• parlour• the local community• advowson of Paston

John I Paston

• Marriage to Margaret Mautby, 1440– dau. and heiress of John Mautby: manors of

Mautby, Flegghall, Fritton, Bessingham, Matlask, West Beckham, Briston, Sparham, Kirkhall

– worth c. £150 p.a. but encumbered by relatives• Education• Service

• 1458 – acquired Huntingfield Hall manor in Bacton

• 1461 – attempted to acquired Duchy of Lancaster lands in Bacton and Paston and to hold courts there

• Events of 1465-6– August 1465: Anthony Woodville occupied Caister

‘under colour of a rumour..that John Paston was the king’s bondman although this was false’ (William Worcester)

– 10 Jan 1466: it was proclaimed at Norwich the reason for the visit of lord Scales to the city - to seize the goods and chattels of John Paston, whom the king claimed for his villein (Norwich city records)

The extent of social mobility

• Warwickshire: between 1349 and c.1520 ownership of about 80% of manors had changed families

• Each generation saw quite a high number of ‘newcomers’ enter the elite (40-50%?)

Social mobility: attitudes

• The documents of 1458-60 and 1466• The brawl of 1448• 1461 – Sir Miles Stapleton and his wife ‘have

blathered here [London] of my kindred in hugger-mugger, but by the time that we have reckoned of old days and late days mine shall be found more worshipful than his and his wife’s’