NINETEENTH GENERATION

345220. Clement PASTON was born about 1355. He died on 21 Sep 1388. A remembrance of the worshipful kin and ancestry of Paston, born in Paston in the Soke of Gimingham.

'First there was one Clement Paston, dwelling in Paston, and he was a good plain husbandman, and lived on the land that he had in Paston, on which he kept a plough at all times of the year, and sometimes at the time for sowing barley two ploughs.

'The said Clement worked behind the plough both winter and summer, and he rode two miles bareback on horse with his corn under him, and brought home meal again, under him. And he also drove his cart with various corn to Winterton to sell, as a good husbandman ought to do.

'Also, he had in Paston five score or six score acres of land at the most, and much of it was bond land of Gimingham Hall, with a poor little water-mill running by a little river there, or so it appears, in the old days.

'He had no other livelihood or manors, nor anything in any other place.
'And he wedded the sister of Geoffrey of Somerton, whose true surname is Goneld, who was a bondwoman; whose bondwoman she was is not known, if men will enquire. (She was in bond to the prior of Bromholm and Bacton as well, or so it is said.)

'And as for Geoffrey Somerton, he was a bondman also, to the same persons. He was both a pardoner and an attorney; and the world was good then, for he gathered many pence and half-pence, and with them he made a fair chapel at Somerton, so it appears.

'Also, the said Clement had a son, William, whom he sent to school; and he often borrowed the money to find his school fees; and after that he went to the courts with the help of his uncle Geoffrey Somerton, and learned the law, and did well for himself. Then he was made a serjeant, and afterwards a justice; he was a very knowledgeable man in law.

'And he purchased much land in Paston, and he also purchased half of the fifth part of the manor of Bacton called either Latimers or Stywards or Huntingfield, which half stretched into Paston. So with it and with another part of the said five parts he has lordship in Paston, but no manor place; and with this John Paston, son of the said William, wants to make himself a lordship there, to the great damage of the duke of Lancaster.

'And the said John desired to and has unjustly increased his estate by one tenant, as when the prior of Bromholm borrowed money from the said William to pay his tithes, the said William would not lend it him unless the said prior would mortgage to the said William one John Albon, the said prior's bondman, dwelling in Paston, who was a stubborn fellow and thrifty man, and would not obey the said William for that cause and because of the ill-will that the said William bore him, he desired him from the prior; and now after the death of the said William, the said John Albon died, and now John Paston, son to the said William, by force of the said mortgage, sent for the son of the said John Albon to Norwich.'
Anon
He was married to Beatrice SOMERTON.

345221. Beatrice SOMERTON was born about 1357. Children were:

172610 i. William PASTON.