308 ANTIQUITIES 



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," &c. 

 and talks of her sons under age. Now Gurdon had no son : 

 and beside Agnes in another document says, " Ego Agnes 

 u quondam uxor Domini Adce Gurdon in pura et ligea vidui- 

 tate 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. 



In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in his 

 own name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for leave to 

 build him an oratory in his manor-house, "in curia sua." 

 Licenses of this sort were frequently obtained by men of for- 

 tune and rank from the bishop of the diocese, the archbishop, 

 and sometimes, as I have seen instances, from the pope ; not 

 only for convenience-sake, and on account of distance, and 

 the badness of the roads, but as a matter of state and dis- 

 tinction. Why the owner should apply to the prior, in pre- 

 ference to the bishop of the diocese, and how the former be- 

 came competent to such a grant, I cannot say ; but that the 

 priors of Selborne did take that privilege is plain, because 

 some years afterward, in 1280, Prior Richard granted to 

 Henry Water ford and his wife Nicholaa a license to build an 

 oratory in their court-house, " curia sua de Waterford,^ in 

 which they might celebrate divine service, saving the rights of 

 the mother church of Basynges. Yet all the while the prior 

 of Selborne grants with such reserve and caution, as if in doubt 

 of his power, and leaves Gurdon and his lady answerable in 

 future to the bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for the 

 time being, in case they should infringe the rights of the 

 mother church of Selborne. 



The manor-house called Temple is at present a single build- 



