ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 327 



manum preceptoris, vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibi- 

 dem," till they can provide the prior and canons with an equivalent 

 in lands or rents within four or five miles of the said convent. It 

 is also further agreed that, if the Templars shall be in arrears for 

 one year, then the prior shall be empowered to distrain upon 

 their live stock in Bradeseth. The next matter was a grant from 

 Robert de Sunford to the priory for ever, of a good and sufficient 

 road, " cheminum," capable of admitting carriages, and proper 

 for the drift of their larger cattle, from the way which extends 

 from Sudington towards Blakemere, on to the lands which the 

 convent possesses in Bradeseth. 



The third transaction (though for want of dates we cannot say 

 which happened first and which last) was a grant from Robert 

 Samford to the priory of a tenement and its appurtenances in the 

 village of Selborne, given to the Templars by Americus de Vasci.* 

 This property, by the manner of describing it, " totum tene- 

 mentum cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, scilicet in terris, & 

 hominibus, in pratis & pascuis, & nemoribus," etc., seems to have, 

 been no inconsiderable purchase, and was sold for two hundred 

 marks sterling, to be applied for the buying of more land for the 

 support of the holy war. 



Prior John is mentioned as the person to whom Vasci's land is 

 conveyed. But in Willis's list there is no Prior John till 1339, 

 several years after the dissolution of the order of the Templars in 

 1312, so that, unless Willis is wrong, and has omitted a prior John 

 since 1262 (that being the date of his first prior), these transac- 

 tions must have fallen out before that date. 



I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon and 

 the Knight Templars ; but probably after his death his daughter 

 Johanna might have, and might bestow, Temple on that order in 

 support of the holy land ; and, moreover, she seems to have been 

 removing from Selborne, when she sold her goods and chattels to 

 the priory, as mentioned above. 



Temple, no doubt, did belong to the knights, as may be 



* Americus Vasci, by his name, must have been an Italian, and had been 

 probably a soldier of fortune, and one of Gurdon's captains. Americus Ves- 

 pucio, the person who gave name to the new world, was a Florentine. 



