London, which may be doubted. He was buried in the chapel of Our Lady in Norwich Cathedral, of which he had been a benefactor, and his son endowed a priest to pray for his soul in the said chapel for ninety years (Blomefield, vi. 480). Blomefield states that he built the north aisle of Therfield Church, Hertfordshire, and probably that of Great Cressingham Church, Norfolk, in both of which effigies of himself and his wife formerly existed.
Paston married Agnes, daughter and heiress of Sir Edmund Berry of Harlingbury or Horwelbury Hall in Hertfordshire, who bore him five sons and one daughter. The sons were: John (1421–1466), who is separately noticed; Edmund (1425?–1449?), William (1436?–1496?), Clement (b. 1442; d. before 1487), and Harry, who must have predeceased his father (Paston Letters, i. 77). The daughter was Elizabeth, who married (1), before 1459, Robert Poynings (d. 1461), by whom she was mother of Lord-deputy Sir Edward Poynings [q. v.], and (2), before 1472, Sir George Browne of Betchworth, Surrey. She made her will on 18 May 1487 (ib. iii. 462).
Paston's wife had brought him estates in Hertfordshire and Suffolk, and he himself had made extensive purchases of lands in Paston and other parts of Norfolk, including the manor of Gresham, bought of Thomas Chaucer [q. v.] These estates he divided by his will between his widow and his sons, with elaborate precautions against disputes, which did not prove entirely successful. He also left a very considerable amount of ready money and plate, although over four hundred pounds of his salary was not paid until fourteen years after his death (Foss, iv. 352; Enrolled Customs Accounts, 37 Henry VI). His widow died in 1479.
[Foss, in his Lives of the Judges (iv. 350–2), gives a short biography of Paston, to which something has been added from Blomefield and Parkin's History of Norfolk (8vo ed., 1805) and Mr. Gairdner's edition of the Paston Letters. The fullest materials for the Paston genealogy are contained in Sandford's transcript of the family pedigree and evidences printed in 1855 by Mr. Worship in vol. iv. of the Norfolk Archæology from the original manuscript at Clumber. Some additional information may be gleaned from Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (ed. Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel), iii. 63 sqq., v. 59 sq.]
PASTON, Sir WILLIAM (1479?–1554), lawyer and courtier, born about 1479, was son of Sir John Paston the younger of Paston in Norfolk, by Margery, daughter of Sir Thomas Brews of Sturton Hall in Sall, Norfolk. The father was a soldier, and had been brought up in the family of the Duke of Norfolk, with whom his family had much dispute; but, like his elder brother, also called Sir John Paston [q. v.], who is separately noticed, and from whom he must be carefully distinguished, he took the Lancastrian side in the war of the Roses. With his brother he fought at Barnet in 1471, and had to secure a pardon to meet the new turn of affairs. He served in the army of 1475, and, on his elder brother's death in 1479, he succeeded to the estates. He was high sheriff of Norfolk in 1485, and evidently was much trusted by the new king, who gave him a reward of 160l. in the same year. He behaved well in the rebellion of Lambert Simnel, was knighted at the battle of Stoke in 1487, was made a knight of the king's body, and took part in the reception of Catherine of Arragon in 1501. He died in 1503.
William Paston was educated at Cambridge, and a letter from him to his father, written about 1495, has been printed among the ‘Paston Letters.’ It shows that at the time he had been forced to leave the university on account of the ravages of the sweating sickness. He was bred to the law, the borough of Yarmouth acknowledging his services on one occasion by giving him a present; but he is chiefly known as a courtier. In 1511 he was a commissioner of array for Norfolk. In 1513 he secured a grant of part of the Pole estates. On 7 July 1517 he attended on the king at a banquet at Greenwich. The same year he was sheriff of Norfolk. It seems uncertain when he was knighted, but probably he was dubbed early in Henry VIII's reign. He was certainly a knight in 1520. He was present at the reception of the emperor, Charles V, and the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and in 1522 seems to have been employed as a treasurer for the army on the Scottish border. He was often in the commission of the peace for Norfolk, and secured various grants. In 1523 he was again serving on the northern border, and his family connection with the Lovell family secured him the executorship to Sir Thomas Lovell [q. v.], who died in 1524. He was a commissioner to collect the subsidy of 1524; the same year, on 1 Sept., he was one of those who rode to Blackheath to meet the papal ambassador bearing the golden rose to Henry. He seems to have been high-handed as a landlord, and had disputes with the men of Yarmouth about his estate of Caistor. In 1528 he was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. He went on the expedition of 1532, took some part, as an augmentation commissioner for Norfolk, in the suppression of the monasteries, was present at the reception of Anne of Cleves in 1539, and died
