OF SKLKOUXK. 305 



LETTER VIII. 



Oun forefathers in 'this village were no doubt as busy and 

 bustling, and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names 



any helping hand that will extend itself, and conduct me out of my diffi- 

 culties. But as my plan necessarily obliges me to enter on the antiquities 

 of my native place, I must presume on our old friendship, and call upon 

 you to solve me some doubts in a study wherein I know you have prose- 

 cuted y r enquiries with no small success. 



" Now the first object that calls my attention in this little district is 

 the priory of Seleburne, which I find by Bp. Tanner consisted of a society 

 of ' Black Canons, and was founded by P. de Rupibus, Bp. 0f Winton, 

 A. D. 1233, but was suppressed and granted to Will. Wainfleet, who made 

 it part of the endowment of St. Mary Magd. Coll. in Oxford.' All this 

 I understand very well ; but then the matter that troubles me is that I 

 have seen in some author, and have quite forgot who he was, that this 

 was a priori/ alien : and there was moreover a list of the priories alien that 

 were dissolved in the 2nd year of Hen. 5th ; and among the rest was the 

 priory of Seleburne. 



" Now this fact, if it is a fact, is very strange, since the founder men- 

 tions no such subordination in his institution j but in his grant, which I 

 have before me, has carefully precluded any such alienation ; as he never 

 would have done had he intended that some foreign abbey should have 

 claimed a jurisdiction over his convent. In the grant he says, f fir- 

 miter inhibentes, ne quis eorum possessiones invadere vi vel fraude, vel in- 

 genio malo occupare audeat vel etiam retinere ----;' and further on he 



adds, what is still more to my purpose, ' et ipsa Domus religiosa a 



ctr/t/s/ibct (tHei'ws Domus relifjiosce subjectione Kbera permaneat, et in oni- 



m'bux (tbwhita .' Now after this, strong reasons should be given to 



induce a person to suppose that this priory was ever alienated 'til it was 

 given to Magd. Coll. 



" In the references in Bp. Tanner's ' Notit. Monastics,' p. 106, under 

 the section Seleburne is < Cart. 54 Hen r 3. M. 3 " De mercatu et feria 

 apud Seleburn." ' Now I am in doubt where I should apply for this 

 charter j whether to the archives of Magd. Coll., or to Dodsworth's col- 

 lections of papers in the Bod. Library. As to the law term of ' Secta mo- 

 lendini,' I think I understand the purport of it; but then I am at a loss 

 about the two last words ' de strete ; ' vide references in Tanner under 

 Seleburno. 



" We have in this parish a farm and manor which goes by the name of 



X 



