The letters are a noted primary source for information about life in England during the Wars of the Roses and the early Tudor period.
[3] Ten years later the originals of Fenn's third and fourth volumes, with ninety-five unpublished letters, were found at Roydon Hall, Norfolk, the seat of George Frere.
Taking Fenn's work as a basis, Gairdner ultimately published over four hundred previously unpublished letters in three volumes.
[4] Gairdner's edition included notes and an index, and introductions to each volume containing a survey of the reign of King Henry VI.
[5] Two recent books have presented the story of the fifteenth-century Pastons for a wider audience, A Medieval Family by Frances and Joseph Gies (1998) and Blood and Roses by Helen Castor (2004).
The family of Paston takes its name from a Norfolk village about twenty miles (32 km) north of Norwich.
[8][9][10][11] Agnes emerges from the letters as a difficult and quick-tempered woman, whose quarrels with the Paston villagers leave some valuable examples of colloquial English in the 1450s.
A lawyer like his father, John Paston spent much of his time in London, leaving his wife to look after his business in Norfolk, a task which Margaret, a sensible and competent woman, managed with considerable skill.
In 1448, Paston's manor of Gresham was seized by Robert Hungerford, Lord Moleyns (1431–1464), and, although it was afterwards recovered, the owner could obtain no redress for the loss and injury he had sustained.
In 1460 and 1461, Paston returned to parliament as a knight of the shire for Norfolk, and, enjoying the favour of Edward IV, had regained his castle at Caister.
He was frequently at the court of Edward IV, but afterwards favoured the Lancastrian party, and, with his younger brother, also named John, fought for Henry VI at the Battle of Barnet.
Owing to his carelessness and extravagance, the family lands were also diminished by sales, but nevertheless when he died unmarried in November 1479 he left a substantial inheritance to his younger brother John.
The younger John Paston (d. 1504), after quarrelling with his uncle William over the manors of Oxnead and Marlingford, was knighted at the Battle of Stoke in 1487.
He married Margery, daughter of Sir Thomas Brewes, and left a son, William Paston (c. 1479–1554), who was also knighted, and who was a prominent figure at the court of Henry VIII.
He was the founder of the Paston Grammar School at North Walsham, and made Oxnead Hall, near Norwich, his principal residence.
Robert's son William (1652–1732), who married a natural daughter of Charles II, was the second earl, and, like his father, was in high favour with the Stuarts.
It abounds with illustrations of public events, as well as of the manners and morals of the time, and some valuable examples of colloquial English, such as Agnes Paston's quarrel with her neighbour, Warren Harman, c.1451, where she told him "if his father had do as he did he would a be ashamed to say to me as he said".
In 2019 a small brass memorial plaque, 25 by 8 cm (9 by 3 inches), was found hidden away between two large tombs in Oxnead church near Aylsham in Norfolk, with an inscription in Latin that translates as "Here lies Anna, daughter of John Paston Knight, on whose soul God have mercy, Amen".