Medieval Family Life

The Paston Family Papers have long been a subject of both literary and historical interest. They are Britain’s first surviving records of private correspondence, describing everyday life in East Anglia during the Wars of the Roses and the Black Death.

In addition we include four other valuable collections relating to medieval families in Essex, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire and Warwickshire, c1400-1490.

Available printed transcriptions are full-text searchable and displayed alongside the manuscript images for the very first time. We also include a variety of 'further resources', including family trees, an interactive map and a wide range of outstanding visual sources.

These will transform teaching in this area and open up many essay topics and research projects.

As Joel Rosenthal says in his introductory essay, these letters “take us into a world of family business, personal relationships, and the local community.”

They “give an insight into long-term issues, like pursuing an inheritance, and those of daily and domestic concern; arranging marriages, bearing and raising children, calculating profit and loss, mourning the dead, fleeing from the plague, or placating the great powers of the land.”

Only five major family letter collections from this period survive and all are included here

Original images are directly linked to full-text transcriptions of all the manuscript material

Double-keyed secondary sources help to contextualise the material

Visual content illustrates everyday life in the medieval period

Medieval Family Life

“Family letter collections a major source of historical information in 15th century England. The major collections are those of the Pastons, the Celys, the Stonors, and the Plumptons, with the Armburgh Papers giving details about a quarrel over a family inheritance. Each of these collections contains a substantial number of letters and related documents. They take us into a world of family business, personal relationships, and the local community… They give an insight into long-term issues, like pursuing an inheritance, and those of daily and domestic concern; arranging marriages, bearing and raising children, calculating profit and loss, mourning the dead, fleeing from the plague, or placating the great powers of the land.”

Professor Joel T Rosenthal
State University of New York at Stony Brook

Consultant Editors:

Joel T Rosenthal, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York

Anne DeWindt, Wayne County Community College, Detroit

Jeremy Goldberg, University of York

Rachel Gibbons, University of Bristol

Source Libraries:

The British Library, London

Chetham's Library, Manchester

The National Archives, Kew

West Yorkshire Archives

Nature of the Material:

This collection focuses on five major family letter collections from this period:

Paston Family Papers
Cely Family Papers
Plumpton Correspondence
Stonor Correspondence
Armburgh Family Papers

Scope of the Collection:

The Paston Family Papers illustrate the fluctuating fortunes of an ambitious Norfolk gentry family against the background of the Wars of the Roses when great noble families and their unruly followers held sway.

The Pastons were merchants, lawyers and landowners, with considerable property near Norwich. Hundreds of documents and letters exchanged between different family members cover in microcosm the dilemmas of a nation beset by war, disease and legal disputes. The men were often far from home, following their trade, or busy helping their faction, studying in Cambridge or even, sometimes, thrown into prison as a result of their political affiliation.

The women were left at home to fend for themselves, looking after the children and the important tasks of dealing with many properties and retainers. Due to the men's absence, they were compelled to carry on many of these duties by correspondence, writing and receiving information on legal issues, estate management and local affairs. What emerges from reading the Paston correspondence concerns not only the whole gamut of family and business affairs, but also the characters of the writers, especially the women, for whom well over one hundred letters survive for the 15th century. Law was the family business. This is why the papers include a lot of legal documents, such as wills and petitions, which often contain valuable evidence for the social historian.

Through these letters we see the Pastons in various roles – as legal advisors for key figure in society, as friendly or hostile neighbours, as landlords, as chroniclers of major public events, and as upholders of the manners and morals of the time.

The Celys were a wealthy Essex merchant family active in the wool trade between England and the Channel ports of France and Belgium. In the years 1477-1488 this trade was in significant decline and the correspondence illuminates the difficulties facing family members, their London dealings from their headquarters in Mart Lane, and their frequent travels to the Continent of Europe.

By the mid 14th century the Stonors had become a well established gentry family in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Their strength was built upon strategic marriages, the extensive sheep flocks that they had built up on the Cotswolds and Chilterns, and the important wardships and stewardships held by Sir William. The family managed to avoid heavy involvement in the Wars of the Roses apart from a short lived set back when Sir William joined Buckingham in rebellion against Richard III. By the early 1490’s the Stonor family had risen from gentry status to the position of substantial landowners with significant social standing at court.

The Plumpton correspondence covers the affairs of a Yorkshire family with estates in Plumpton, a riverside settlement close to Knaresborough forest, as well as in and around Steeton, Idle, Grassington and Studley. It includes letters from kings, magnates, senior churchmen, abbots and judges to lawyers, men of affairs, friends, relations and servants, enemies and creditors. The material documents their struggle to maintain and improve their social status, revealing their ruthless exploitation of the law to finance an opulent life style and the strains of expensive marriage settlements. The letters cover the period 1480-1510 and the majority are incoming letters addressed to Sir William Plumpton (1401-1480) or his son, Sir Robert Plumpton (1453-1525).

The role of women in these families comes across well in the Paston, Plumpton and Stonor letters. Below is an illustration from British Library Add Mss 43490 f23, a Valentine letter from Margery Brews to John Paston III, February 1477. Their courtship was a protracted affair and is well documented. Issues such as parenthood, the education of children, health and mortality are also well represented.

The Armburgh papers are one of the most remarkable sets of documents for the history of late medieval England to have been discovered in recent years. The letters deal largely with the prolonged dispute over the Brokholes inheritance in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. They cover the affairs of one of the claimants, Joan Armburgh, and her husband Robert. Most of the material is for the period 1420-1450 and the letters of this gentry family reflect the turbulent backdrop of national politics. However, the Armburghs are more concerned with affairs closer to home, local politics and feudal networks, the financial strains of lengthy litigation, and the management of their lands and business affairs.

This digital resource will transform teaching in this area and open up many essay topics and research projects.
Original images are directly linked to full-text transcriptions where available.
Double-keyed secondary sources help to contextualise the material.
Visual content illustrates everyday life in the medieval period.

“As sources for historical explication and exploration, it is hard to do better than to turn to these collections of family letters.”

Professor Joel T Rosenthal
State University of New York at Stony Brook