Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/402

 382 Hijiory of Dome ft ic Manners refpe6t, and even counted upon their earnings. The parental authority was indeed carried to an almofi; extravagant extent. There are fome curious inftances of this in the correlpondence of the Pafton family. Agnes Pafton, the wife of fir William Pafton, the judge, appears to have been a very harfti mother. At the end of June 1454, Elizabeth Clere, a kinfwoman who appears to have lived in great intimacy with the family, fent to John Pafton, the lady's eldeft fon, the following account of the treatment of his fifter Elizabeth, who was of marriageable age, and for whom a man of the name of Scroope had been propofed as a hulband. "Therefore, coufin," writes Jane Clere, " mefeemeth he were good for my coufin your fifter, without that ye might get her a better ; and if ye can get a better, I would advife you to labour it in as fliort time as ye may goodly, for ftie was never in fo great a forrow as ftie is now-a-days, for flie may not fpeak with no man, whofoever come, nor even may fee nor fpeak with my man, nor with fervants of her mother's, but that ftie beareth her on hand otherwife than flie meaneth ; and flie hath fince Eafter the moft part been beaten once in the week, or twice, and fome- times twice in a day, and her head broken in two or three places. Wherefore, coufin, ftie hath fent to me by friar Newton in great counfel, and prayeth me that I would fend to you a letter of her heavinefs, and pray you to be her good brother, as her truft is in you." In fpite of her anxiety to be married, Elizabeth Pafton did not fucceed at this time, but llie was foon afterwards transferred from her paternal roof to the houfehold of the lady Pole. It was ftill the cuftom to fend young ladies of family to the houfes of the great to learn manners, and it was not only a matter of pride and oftentation to be thus furrounded by a numerous train, but the noble lady whom they ferved did not difdain to receive payment for their board as well as employing them in profitable work. In a memorandum of errands to London, written by Agnes Pafton on the 28th of January, 1457, one is a meflage to " Elizabeth Pafton that ftie muft ufe herfelf to work readily, as other gentlewomen do, and fomewhat to help herfelf therewith. Item, to pay the lady Pole twenty-fix (hillings and eightpence for her board." Margaret Pafton, the wife of John Pafton, juft mentioned, and daughter-in-law of Agnes, feems