The members of the late-medieval Stonor family are less well known than those of the Paston family, in spite of the Stonor family archive that is second in volume and interest only to that of the far more famous Pastons. Eight generations of the Stonor family appear in their late-medieval papers, compared to the four generations covered by the Paston correspondence. A history of the Stonor family, written by a family member, Julian Stonor, in 1948, gives the reader an account of the many family members, from the fifth century through to the near present. This work, unfortunately, documents its claims more sparingly than one would wish, so that statements of intrinsic interest about various late-medieval members of the family cannot be checked or amplified. Since its focus, too, is strictly on the family members, it lacks any discussion of the historiography of changing social contexts for the different generations.

In their introductions to the Stonor letters and papers, both Kingsford and Carpenter recognise that the collection itself reinforces the fact that the gentry possessed a considerable degree of literacy, with Kingsford commenting that the ‘country squires of Oxfordshire’ could ‘write with ease’, and Carpenter agreeing that the surviving gentry correspondences are the tip of a lost iceberg. For them both, the themes that the collection can illustrate are of value because of the Stonors' social position as members of the gentry.