Paston, Agnes (c. 1405–1479)

English aristocrat. Name variations: Agnes Berry. Born around 1405 in Norfolk, England; died on August 17, 1479, in London; daughter of Edmund Berry, lord of Hertfordshire; married William Paston (a lawyer and judge), in 1420 (died 1444); mother-in-law of Margaret Paston (1423–1484); children: John Paston (b. 1421); Edmund Paston (b. 1425); Elizabeth Paston (b. 1429); William Paston (b. 1436); Clement Paston (b. 1442).

Agnes Paston, a wealthy English woman of the gentry class, was the daughter of Sir Edmund Berry, lord of Hertfordshire. In 1420, she married William Paston, a highly respected justice of the local court systems. Though his family belonged to the upper peasantry, William had managed to acquire substantial properties and bring himself up into the landed gentry.

As well, financial considerations led him to marry Agnes. She was her father's only heir, and in 1433 the couple were greatly enriched by Agnes' inheritance of lands in Norfolk and Hertfordshire. The Pastons found themselves to be of like mind in terms of maintaining a high social and financial status. Like most landowners, they were concerned mostly with preserving their properties. Their eldest son John became a lawyer and married the woman his parents carefully chose for him, a wealthy though not noble heiress named Margaret Mauteby (Margaret Paston ). When Agnes' husband died in 1444, she gained control of over half of William's estates, since he willed her a considerable amount of property, and her own dower lands were returned to her control. Most of the remaining portion of William's lands went to John, with provisions made for their other sons as well.

Agnes moved in with John and Margaret, a relationship that proved difficult at times for her daughter-in-law, for both women had forceful, domineering personalities. Agnes was a skilled administrator of her own property, but often conflicted with Margaret over the marriages of Margaret's children—she felt that Margaret was too sentimental, letting her children marry for love (with the notable exception of a daughter Margery Paston Calle ). Eventually Agnes moved to London to live with her third son, William. She remained an active participant in her family's affairs until her death in 1479. Details of her life are preserved in the voluminous collection of Paston family letters.

sources:

Anderson, Bonnie S., and Judith P. Zinsser. A History of Their Own. Vol. I. NY: Harper & Row, 1988.

Virgoe, Roger, ed. Private Life in the Fifteenth Century: Illustrated Letters of the Paston Family. NY: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.

Laura York , Riverside, California