Abstract
This thesis is a study of a selection of the letters and wills of the women of the Paston family, with the exception of those of Margaret Mautby Paston, which have already received considerable scholarly attention. My intention will be to on focus on and to augment current knowledge of the lives of the lesser-known Paston women. Chapter one is concerned with the women’s scribal ability. When he surveyed the letters of the female members of the immediate Paston family, Norman Davis found little evidence that they were able to write, however, when my research methods were applied to the letters of some more distantly related women, I uncovered more evidence of their scribal ability. This speaks for a revision of earlier views of their agency. In the second chapter of my thesis I examine some of the few surviving letters written by the Paston women, for evidence of their persuasive powers. This chapter includes discussion of the collaborative nature of the production of some medieval letters. In my third chapter I interrogate the wills of three women of the Paston family who died as widows, and examine their sense of their own agency as they prepared to leave the world. My fourth chapter outlines my discoveries about the life of Constance Paston. In her will of 1482, Margaret Mautby Paston made a bequest to Constance, ‘bastard daughter’ of her son, John Paston II. Until recently, this was all that was known of the fate of this unfortunate little girl. This study shows that despite being illegitimate, female and orphaned, Constance had more agency than might be expected, for she was not neglected, rather she was taken in and raised by her uncle, John Paston III. She was also permitted to marry for love, rather than by arrangement – a rare thing for a Paston daughter.