Anne O’Brien tells the story of Margery Paston, a member of the famous Norfolk letter-writing family, and the scandal she caused when she fell in love with their bailiff, a man from a family who sold mustard and candles. It’s the background to her new novel, A Marriage of Fortune.
Clement Paston, who died in 1419, was little more than a peasant, described as a “good plain husbandman”, taking his name from the place where he lived in Norfolk. He owned a small area of arable land and had a “poor watermill running by a little river”.
Two generations on, the Pastons were a family of means and intent on rising even higher.
How did they achieve this? Partly through the education of their children and a facility in dealing with litigation. More importantly, it was through the making of good marriages. The Paston men married well. Margaret Mautby and Agnes Barry were both considerable heiresses, daughters of minor gentry, bringing with them valuable land, an acceptable dowry and social connections.
Margaret and her husband John Paston I had two daughters who, following the family pattern, were expected to marry well to men who had un-entailed income and land, as well as a secure status to push the Paston up the ladder of social advancement.
Unfortunately Margery Paston, the elder daughter, fell in love with Richard Calle, the Paston bailiff. He fell in love with her. All Paston plans were thrown into disarray.
How and when this couple fell in love, the Paston letters sadly do not tell us. Richard was older than Margery; she must have known him for much of her life, but their love blossomed when she was about twenty years old, certainly of an age to have a mind of her own. Richard Calle was a highly capable man who had worked loyally for the Pastons over many years, highly trusted and respected in dealing with all aspects of finance and land ownership. The perfect husband, so it would seem.
The problem was this. Richard Calle’s family sold commodities in Framlingham. They were not merchants (which might have been acceptable) but shopkeepers. And they sold nothing of more value than mustard and candles, an accusation used by John Paston III in sharp disparagement. Richard had no land, no income other than his Paston wage, and no social status. Such a marriage would be anathema to the Pastons. They would become the talk and gossip of Norwich!
Margery’s marriage to Richard was forbidden.
Undeterred, and with considerable courage, Margery and Richard decided to thwart the family. They made private vows together, without a priest, thus engaging in a clandestine marriage per verba de praesenti. Furthermore they physically consummated the vows that they had taken.
The result was as might be expected when faced with such a scandal. Richard was banished from his position in the Paston household, the Pastons declaring that they would never re-employ him, at the same time as they denied the marriage ever took place.
Margery was placed under strict surveillance, and Margaret began writing letters to send Margery to the household of the Duchess of Oxford in London, to remove her from temptation until a more suitable husband could be arranged. Letters sent by Richard Calle to Margery were intercepted and destroyed by Margaret, all except for one. We learn that Richard, full of remorse but still proclaiming his love for Margery, was trying to make a living in London and had been in poor health. Would this be the end of all their hopes and dreams?
Not so! Richard took the whole affair to the Bishop of Norwich to receive the judgement of the Church. The Bishop was willing to take on the case but needed all the evidence. The Pastons demanded that he condemn the marriage out of hand, but the Bishop was concerned, not that the marriage had been consummated, but at the words that had been spoken.
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In the end he had no choice but to accept that it was a legal marriage, however much the Church might disapprove of such affairs. Margery and Richard should remain together, as long as they re-married in public with priest and banns as was proper.
But what of Margery? There was no compassion for her plight in her family. The division was final. Despite the Bishop’s intervention, she was barred from entering the Paston house, forcing the Bishop into finding accommodation for her with the family of Robert Best in Norwich.
On the strength of the Bishop’s decision, Margery and Richard travelled to the Benedictine nunnery of Blackburgh to the north west of Norwich where they remained until the banns were called and the marriage duly solemnised before a priest. Only then did they return to Norwich where the couple must find a home and Richard still had to earn a living.
What happened next? History does not help us much here. We presume that they made a home for themselves in Norwich. We know that they had three sons together, John, Richard, and William. It is possible that Richard found work under the auspices of the Church of from various merchant families.
Even more regretful, there is no evidence for any reconciliation between mother and daughter. Either no letters were written or they were destroyed. Did Margaret continue to ignore her daughter, still fearing the effect of scandal in her family? Or was Margery the one who suffered the humiliation, refusing to take that one step forward.
One comforting piece of evidence is this. In her will Margaret left £20 to Margery’s eldest son John. Maybe this suggests that there had been some element of forgiveness and compassion that history has not recorded.
What we do know is that Richard was eventually re-employed by Margaret Paston, but not as bailiff, rather on an ad hoc basis which would give him far less security and would not have paid so well. It suggests that there was some level of reconciliation.
Were Richard and Margery happy in the life that they had fought so hard to achieve? I like to think that they were, even though Margery’s life was not a long one. Marriage was everything to the stability for these middling sort of families and the Pastons were formidable in legal matters; it was a brave man and woman who took them on.
Richard and Margery demand our admiration for their courage, their determination to wed regardless of Paston disapproval; they deserved their happiness.
You can read all about Margery and Richard, as well as the trials and tribulation of the rest of this turbulent letter-writing family, in my novel, A Marriage of Fortune.
A Marriage of Fortune by Anne O’Brien is published on 19 January, 2023.
You might enjoy some other features written by Anne:
To have and to hold: pawns in the medieval marriage game
Discovering Elizabeth Mortimer
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Images:
- A bridal couple, 1470: Cleveland Museum of Art via Picryl (public domain)
- A man putting a ring on a woman’s finger from British Library Royal MS 6 E VI, fol 104: James le Palmer for Wikimedia (public domain)
- A chandler’s shop from Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Couple sitting on a bed from the Codex Manesse, 1305–15: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Bel Accueil and the Lover from BL Harley 4425, f 36, Roman de la Rose: Picryl (public domain)
