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AI Decodes 1477 Paston Love Letter

The Scribe tool from MyHeritage turns late medieval handwriting into plain modern English.

Overview

  • Researchers at MyHeritage used their new Scribe AI to transcribe and translate a February 1477 letter from Margery Brews to her fiancé John Paston.
  • Scribe identified the place of writing as Topcroft and clarified the date annotation as Feb. 1476/7, which corresponds to February 1477 in modern dating.
  • The translation shows Brews saying her father would not raise her dowry, pledging she would not leave Paston, and asking him to keep her letter private.
  • The note is part of the Paston letters, a large family archive from 15th–16th century England that records daily life, law, and social climbing across generations.
  • Records show the pair later married and had a son in 1479, while MyHeritage says Scribe can quickly explain people, emotions, and context in hard‑to‑read historical texts.