The affluent Paston family of the 15th and 16th centuries, who elevated from landholding peasantry to influential, English gentry, left behind a wealth of private and business correspondences that still survive today and provide a fascinating insight into medieval life and the often turbulent political landscape of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The family moved through the ranks of post-plague English society as a result of the increase in trade and an unstable King troubled by turbulent nobles. Clement Paston is the earliest known, a peasant who owned 40 hectares of land in the village of Paston, 19 miles North East of Norwich, and made sure his son William – born in 1378 – received a good education. William became a sought after expert in law, and married a nobleman’s daughter.
Click here to read this article from the Norwich Evening News
