Editing Paston Letters (section)

===Edited by John Fenn===
In 1787 John Fenn published a selection of the letters in two volumes, bringing general interest to the collection. Fenn published two further volumes of letters in 1789.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Castor |first=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cH-Z-6osohsC |title=Blood and Roses |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-571-28680-5 |pages=3–5 |language=en}}</ref> Before he died in 1794 he prepared a fifth volume for publication, which was posthumously published in 1823 by his nephew William Frere. In 1787 Fenn presented the originals of his first two volumes to King [[George III of Great Britain|George III]], who knighted Fenn on 23 May 1787.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stoker |first=David |year=1995 |title=Innumerable letters of good consequence in history: the discovery and first publication of the Paston Letters |journal=The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society |volume=XVII |issue=2 |pages=107–155 |publisher=The Bibliographical Society |location=London }} pp.108–9.</ref> Shortly thereafter, the manuscripts for all five volumes disappeared {{when|date=December 2015}}, casting doubt on the authenticity of the letters. In 1865 their authenticity was questioned by [[Herman Merivale]] in the ''[[Fortnightly Review]]'', but [[James Gairdner]] countered that they were genuine in the same periodical. Within a year, Gairdner was proven right by the discovery of the originals of the fifth volume, together with other letters and papers, by Frere's son, Philip Frere, in his house at [[Dungate]].<ref>Stoker, (1995), pp.152–4.</ref> Ten years later the originals of Fenn's third and fourth volumes, with ninety-five unpublished letters, were found at Roydon Hall, [[Norfolk]], the seat of George Frere. Finally the originals of the two remaining volumes were rediscovered in 1889 at [[Orwell Park]], [[Ipswich]], in the residence of Captain [[E. G. Pretyman]]. The last letters to be found were the letters presented to George III; they may have reached Orwell through Sir [[George Pretyman Tomline]], the tutor and friend of [[William Pitt the Younger]].

Most of the Paston letters and associated documents are now in the [[British Library]], but some are in the [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]], with a few at [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]].