Sir John Paston (before 15 April 1442 – November 1479) was the eldest son of John Paston and Margaret Mautby. He succeeded his father in 1466, and spent a considerable part of his life attempting to make good his father's claim to the lands of Margaret Mautby's kinsman, Sir John Fastolf. A number of his letters survive among the Paston Letters, a rich source of historical information for the lives of the English gentry of the period. Although long betrothed to Anne Haute, a first cousin of Elizabeth Woodville, he never married, and was succeeded by his younger brother, also named John.
Family
John Paston, born before 15 April 1442, was the eldest son and heir of John Paston and Margaret Mautby, daughter and heir of John Mautby of Mautby, Norfolk. He had a younger brother, also named John (1444–1504), who later succeeded him, as well as three other brothers, Edmund, Walter and William, and two sisters, Margery and Anne.
Career
Although nothing is known of John Paston's education, it is clear from his correspondence, and from the surviving inventory of his books in his own hand, that he had been well educated. He became a courtier in the household of Edward IV in 1461, and was knighted when he reached the age of majority in 1463. In November 1463 he angered his father by leaving home without his parents' consent, perhaps to join the King in the north of England, and in December 1464 a further quarrel with his father resulted in their complete estrangement, with his father terming him 'a drone among bees'; they were not reconciled until May 1465.
Much of his father's time from the mid-1450s had been taken up by his position as adviser to Sir John Fastolf'. In June 1459 Fastolf had made a written will in which he appointed ten executors and charged them with founding a college in Caister. However, after Fastolf died on 5 November 1459, Paston's father claimed that on 3 November Fastolf had made a nuncupative will giving Paston exclusive authority over the foundation of the college, and providing that, after payment of 4000 marks, Paston was to have all Fastolf's lands in Norfolk and Suffolk. Relying on the nuncupative will, Paston took possession of the Fastolf estates, and resided at times at Fastolf's manors of Caister and Hellesdon. However his claim to the Fastolf lands was challenged by John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, by William Yelverton and Gilbert Debenham, by John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, and by Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, and in 1464 a legal challenge to Paston's executorship under the nuncupative will was mounted by William Yelverton; the lawsuit was still undecided at the time of his death.
The 'defining feature of Sir John Paston's career' was thus the 'struggle to make good his father's claim to inherit the estates of Sir John Fastolf'. According to Tait, however, he was temperamentally ill-suited to the task, and although in July 1466, only two months after his father's death, he was confirmed in his possession of Caister and other lands by Edward IV, he was seldom afterwards in Norfolk, although he was occasionally appointed to administrative offices there, serving as Member of Parliament in 1467 and as a Justice of the Peace in 1469. He preferred to reside in London, first in Fleet Street, and then at the George near Paul's Wharf, and left the task of defending the family's East Anglian possessions to his mother and younger brother, John. In April 1467 he participated in a tournament at Eltham Palace with Edward IV and his brother-in-law, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, and it is owing to Paston that we have an account of a famous tournament in England between Paston's friend, Earl Rivers, and the Bastard of Burgundy. In the following year Paston and his brother John were among those who accompanied Edward IV's sister, Margaret of York, to Bruges for her marriage to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,
During this period Paston was occasionally appointed to administrative offices in Norfolk, serving as Member of Parliament in 1467 and as a Justice of the Peace in 1469.
In August 1467 Paston and Fastolf's former chaplain, Thomas Howes, were granted probate of Fastolf's will. Howes then defected to the trustees who had been appointed under Fastolf's written will, and who were continuing to oppose the Paston family's claims. In October 1468 several of these trustees, including Howes and William Yelverton, sold Caister to John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk, whose father, John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, had attempted to seize it in 1461. In August 1469 Norfolk laid siege to Caister Castle, and after five weeks Paston's younger brother, John, was forced to surrender it.