family, and had asked Howes, whose niece Worcester had married, to choose the land (ib. i. 509). At first he hoped that Paston, who was under some obligation to him, would remedy the injustice, and it was only when that keen man of business, against the advice of his brother, refused to do anything for the unfortunate Worcester that he joined Sir William Yelverton [q. v.], another of Fastolf's executors, in disputing the will of 3 Nov., and propounding an earlier one dated 14 June 1459 (ib. i. 494, 508, iii. 438). ‘I have lost,’ he said, ‘more thanne x mark worthe londe in my maister servyce, by God and not I be releved, all the worlde schal knowe it elles that I have to gret wrong’ (ib. i. 509). Friendly attempts to bring about a reconciliation were of no avail owing to Paston's reluctance to make any provision for him, and in 1464 Worcester and Yelverton began their suit in the archbishop's court, which was still proceeding when Paston died two years later (ib. ii. 154, 271). In June 1467 Sir John Paston entered a counter suit, in which he charged Yelverton and Worcester with bribing witnesses in the previous trial (ib. ii. 443). But Howes had now deserted the Pastons, and Bishop Waynflete, who had conceived the idea of diverting the endowment left by Fastolf for a college at Caister to a new foundation of his own at Oxford, used his influence in favour of peace. Ultimately Worcester obtained some lands near Norwich called Fairchilds, and two tenements and gardens called Walles in Southwark; in return for all documents relating to Fastolf's lands in Worcester's possession, and his assistance in securing those estates appropriated to his new college, Waynflete covenanted (7 Dec. 1472) to pay him 100l. and an allowance upon all sums of money recovered by him (ib. ii. 397, iii. 73). Some two years before Worcester had been urging that the college ought to be at Cambridge as nearer Norfolk and Suffolk (ib. ii. 312). In 1470 he had himself announced an intention of removing to Cambridge, as a cheaper place of residence than London, but whether he actually lived there is not clear (ib. ii. 397). It is probable that the last years of his life were mainly spent in Norfolk, though he frequently visited his property in Bristol (Itinerarium, pp. 208, 210, 212). After his death he was described as ‘late of Pokethorp by Norwich, gentleman’ (Paston Letters, iii. 296; Tanner, p. 115). He devoted a good deal of his time, however, to the journeys of which he has left a record in his ‘Itinerarium.’ A detailed account is given of those he made in the summers of 1478 and 1480 respectively. On 17 Aug. 1478 he left Norwich, and travelling by Southampton and Bristol, whence he visited Tintern Abbey, to St. Michael's Mount, he returned to London on 7 Oct. (Itinerarium, pp. 142 sqq.). In 1480 he spent September in Bristol, visiting Kingston and Oxford on his way (ib. pp. 275, 296, 298). While at Bristol he rode out to Shirehampton to reclaim two of his books, the ‘Ethics’ and ‘Le myrrour de dames,’ which he had lent to one Thomas Young. These last years of his life were probably comparatively free from troubles, though in 1475 he was arrested at the instance of John Monk, a neighbour at Pokethorp, and a former witness in the suit against Paston (ib. p. 368; cf. Paston Letters, ii. 272). The exact year of his death is unknown, but seems to have been between 1480 and 1483, as his collection of documents relating to the Duke of Bedford's regency, which he dedicated to Edward IV, was re-dedicated by his son to Richard III (Wars of the English in France, ii. [521]). The three concluding entries of his ‘Annals,’ which belong to 1491 and were written after October 1500, must therefore be by another hand. The continuous narrative ends with 1468 (ib. ii. [792]). His wife Margaret survived him (Paston Letters, iii. 296). By her he had several children, of whom a son William, referred to above, is the only one whose name is known.
According to Friar Brackley, Worcester was blind of an eye and of a swarthy complexion (ib. i. 523, iii. 479). His letters betray some sense of humour. His accomplishments were varied (including a knowledge of medicine and astronomy), and his zeal and industry in collecting historical and topographical information praiseworthy, but he had no literary skill. Both his Latin and his English are ungrammatical, but he was keenly interested in the classical revival, and entered in his commonplace-book notes as to Greek terminations and pronunciations derived from his friend Prior William Celling [q. v.] The ‘Annals,’ though a valuable authority where authorities are scarce, are jejune and uninteresting. The ‘Itinerarium’ is a mass of undigested notes of very unequal importance, but interesting if only as an anticipation of Leland's greater work. The survey of Bristol it contains is exceedingly full, and has been of the greatest service to local topographers. It is the basis of the map which forms the frontispiece to the ‘History of Bristol’ in the ‘Historic Towns’ series.
The following works were written by, or have been ascribed to, Worcester: 1. ‘Annales rerum Anglicarum’ (1324–1468, 1491), the only manuscript of which is the author's holograph in Arundel MS. 48 at the College
