3 i6 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



be able to withhold his hand from that vengeance which the 

 vanquished so well deserved. A cowardly disposition would 

 have been blinded by resentment ; but this gallant heir apparent 

 saw at once a method of converting a most desperate foe into a 

 lasting friend. He raised the fallen veteran from the ground, he 

 pardoned him, he admitted him into his confidence, and intro- 

 duced him to the queen, then lying at Guildford, that very even- 

 ing. This unmerited and unexpected lenity melted the heart of 

 the rugged Gurdon at once ; he became in an instant a loyal and 

 useful subject, trusted and employed in matters of moment by 

 Edward when king, and confided in till the day of his death. 



LETTER IX. 



IT has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gurdon had 

 availed himself by marrying women of property. By my evidences 

 it appears that he had three wives, and probably in the following 

 order : Constantia, Ameria, and Agnes. The first of these ladies, 

 who was the companion of his middle life, seems to have been a 

 person of considerable fortune, which she inherited from Thomas 

 Makerel, a gentleman of Selborne, who was either her father or 

 uncle. The second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam wife of 

 Sir Adam, " quae fui uxor," etc., and talks of her sons under age. 

 Now Gurdon had no son : and beside, Agnes, in another docu- 

 ment, says, " Ego Agnes quondam uxor Domini Adtz Gurdon in 

 pura et ligea viduitate mea:" but Gurdon could not leave two 

 widows ; and therefore it seems probable that he had been 

 divorced from Ameria, who afterwards married and had sons. 

 By Agnes Sir Adam had a daughter Johanna, who was his heiress, 

 to whom Agnes in her life-time surrendered part of her jointure : 

 he had also a bastard son. 



Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called Temple, 

 lying about two miles east of the church, which had been the 

 property of Thomas Makerel. 



