Margery Paston [18189] ^24,25

  General Notes:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/cgi-bin/gedlkup.php/n=royal?royal17881

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/PASTON.htm#Margery%20PASTON2

Richard Call (b. ABT 1431 - d. AFT 1504) is well-known to readers of the Paston letters as the bailiff or estate manager for John Paston I and his two sons (both confusingly named John) during the last half of the fifteenth century. Young Richard Call went into service with John Paston I upon the recommendation of the Duke of Norfolk, whose seat was in Framlingham. Call served as a devoted and trusted servant under two generations of Paston patriarchs, John I, and later his two sons John II and John III for nearly half a century. Rising to the position of chief bailiff or estate manager, Call was actively involved in the Pastons' extensive business and legal matters. He negotiated leases and collected rents from tenants; he sold land and woods; he bought and sold commodities and horses; he kept accounts, inventories, and indentures in his own hand; he delivered letters and other documents; he attended various legal hearings on behalf of the family; he transported money and silver to various family members; and he wrote numerous letters on behalf of family members and himself.
In a letter to his brother, dated May 1469, John Paston III expresses his fear that if his sister Margery marries Richard Call she will be made "to selle kandyll and mustard in Framlyngham". This contemptuous remark exposes not only the Paston's social snobbery but, more importantly, the growing animosity between the old landed gentry and the new, upwardly-mobile merchant class, represented by Richard Call. Call's clandestine courtship of and subsequent marriage to Margery Paston, the youngest daughter of John Paston I, caused a major uproar in the Paston household when the affair was discovered in 1469. They had secretly exchanged vows, which under church law constituted a legal marriage. John Paston III expressed the family's outrage when he wrote that Call "shold neuer haue my good wyll for to make my sustyr to selle kandyll and mustard in Framly[n]gham". Although the entire family was opposed to the relationship, Margery's mother Margaret was especially shocked and outraged. Three years before their affair was finally revealed, she expressed her suspicions ABT Call's character to her eldest son John by warning him to "be ware of him and of hys felowe" . Upon discovering the relationship, Margaret forced Margery and Call to appear in the Bishop's Court where they were examined by the Bishop of Norwich. After interrogating both of them, the Bishop ruled that their vows were legitimate, but Margaret refused to let Margery enter her house. She says: "and [if] he [Call] were ded at thys owyre sche xuld neuere be at myn hart as sche was".
Although Margery became estranged from her mother and brothers for a time, Call continued to handle some of their business affairs.
Unlike John Paston's two sons, both of whom had university educations, Richard Call was self-educated. From the surviving 23 letters in his own hand, we can conclude that he was not only literate in English, but as evidenced by the "boke of French" stolen from his chambers at Hellesdon and his various memoranda in Latin, he learned at least two foreign languages. One of the functions of a household miscellany is pedagogical, and a number of the texts copied into the Cambridge manuscript concern the improvement of body, mind, and soul. Acquisition of social graces is seen in the The Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke, which would have instructed Call and his family in upper-class hygiene and table manners, such as "Loke thyne hondys be wasshe clene, That no fylthe on thy nayles be seyn"; "Pyke not thyne eris ne thy nostrelles"; "Ne spitte thow over the tabylle"; and "Caste not thi bones ynto the flore".
Richard and Margery had three sons: John, William, and Richard. After Margery's death, at some time before 1482, Call married Margaret Trollopp of Edingthorpe, and had two additional sons Andrew and John. According to a Chancery Proceeding, Call was still alive between 1500 and 1515.

Margery married Richard Call Estate Agent [42477] [MRIN: 551609387].