Elizabeth Paston (1429 – 1 February 1488) was a member of the English gentry who is regularly referred to in the extensive collection of Paston Letters. She was the only daughter of a Norfolk lawyer, William Paston and Agnes Barry. In her late teens and twenties she resisted marriage to several men proposed by her mother and brothers, before marrying Sir Robert Poynings in 1458, with whom she had a son Edward Poynings.[1]
Following her husband's death at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461,[2] she spent a period as a widow before marrying George Browne by whom she had two further children. Browne's execution in 1483 following his involvement in a rebellion against Richard III left her a widow again.[1]