Paston, Norfolk

The manor of Paston is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Pastuna from the Roman name Terra Pastorini ("Shepherds' Land"), one of the many English holdings of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. The listing mentions the church and a mill. From about 1400, it was dominated by the de Paston family (later Paston), who had taken their surname from their seat. Clement Paston was sufficiently wealthy to have his son William Paston (1378–1444) educated as a lawyer and he later become a judge. The family went on to acquire lands throughout the county of Norfolk and became wealthy and part of the county gentry. Indeed, there is an old saying in Norfolk that "There was never a Paston poor, a…

]] The village is best known for its association with the Paston family, who resided in an earlier building on the site of the present Paston Hall. The family is most noted for the Paston Letters, a collection of letters and papers, consisting of the correspondence of members of the family, and others connected with them, between 1422 and 1509, and including some state papers and other important documents. Most of the Paston letters and associated documents are now in the British Library, but a few are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In a letter dated 4 February 1445, Agnes Paston, the widow of William Paston, advised her son…