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Bridget Paget ''née'' Masterson (1570–''circa'' 1647) was an English Puritan who acted as her husband John Paget's literary executor and editor. ==Origins and background== Briget Masterson (also rendered "Maisterson") was the daughter of〔(St. George and St. George, p. 178. )〕〔(Hall, 421-2 )〕 : * Richard Masterson (died 1617) of Nantwich, son of Roger Masterson and Elizabeth Walthall. : * Elizabeth Grosvenor (died 1627), daughter of Sir Thomas Grosvenor of Eaton Hall, Cheshire and Maud Poole.〔(St. George and St. George, p. 116. )〕 The Mastersons were the oldest-established of the families that made up Nantwich's merchant oligarchy but had numerous branches.〔(Hall, p. 416. )〕 Robert Maisterson, an ancestor of Richard, is recorded as holding land at ''Wich Malbank'' (the original name for the town) in the reign of Edward I〔(Hall, p. 420 )〕 His father was Siwardus ("victory guardian")〔Hanks ''et al'', p. 865.〕 Magisterson and his grandfather Swayn ("boy")〔Hanks ''et al'', p. 870.〕 ''filius Magistri''. Both personal names suggest a Viking origin and seem to be in the Norwegian form. The name ''Magister'' (Latin: Master) was often applied to the members of the franklin class,〔Hanks ''et al'', p. 406.〕 the independent freeholders characteristic of areas of Norse settlement. George Ormerod, the early 19th century historian of Cheshire, pointed out that the Mastersons "never appear to have possessed manorial property in Cheshire, or to have resided in any other seat than a burgage of Nantwich."〔(Ormerod, p. 230. )〕 All branches of the family seem to have invested in residential property and in the salt houses, where the town's mineral wealth was extracted. An inquisition post mortem on an illegitimate member of a cadet branch, William Maisterson, who died in 1495, showed him busily and sometimes illegally acquiring urban property and salt houses under the protection of Sir William Stanley. Briget's branch of the family seem to have prospered fairly slowly but steadily. Her great-grandfather Thomas held lands in Nantwich valued at £18 per annum in 1545:〔(Hall, p. 421 )〕 only moderate wealth. However, Richard, her father, seems to have made considerable gains, both in wealth and social standing, at least partly because of a fortunate marriage. The Grosvenors could trace their ancestry back to the Franco-Norman feudal nobility〔(St. George and St. George, p. 113-4. )〕 and were clearly of the landed gentry class. Richard was a legatee of his mother-in-law, Dame Maude, who died in 1582. An inquisition after the death of Thomas, his son and Briget's elder brother, who predeceased him in 1604, mentions that Richard's principle house was at ''Presthume'' – aptly named as it was formerly the property of Trentham Priory, at this point held of the king, James I, in his role as Earl of Chester.〔(Hall, p. 417 )〕 It had a mill and dovecotes was surrounded by 206 acres.〔(Ormerod, p. 231. )〕 It seems that Briget and her siblings were brought up amid considerable comfort. Her later writing indicates that she was probably educated and literate. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Briget Paget」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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