320 ANTIQUITIES 



I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon 

 and the Knights 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 moving 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 as- 

 serted, not only from it's name, but also from another corro- 

 borating circumstance of it's being still a manor tithe-free ; 

 "for, by virtue of their order," says Dr. Blackstone, " the 

 " lands of the Knights Templars were privileged by the pope 

 " with a discharge from tithes." 



Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms pre- 

 ceptores and preceptorium, not being able to determine what 

 officer or edifice was meant. But perhaps all the while the 

 passage quoted above from one of my papers "per manum 

 " preceptor is vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibidem," 

 may help to explain the difficulty. For if it be allowed here 

 that preceptor and ballivus are synonymous words, then the 

 brother who took on him that office resided in the house of 

 the Templars at Sudington, a preceptory; where he was their 

 preceptor, superintended their affairs, received their money ; 

 and, as in the instance there mentioned, paid from their 

 chamber, " camera" as directed : so that, according to this 

 explanation, a preceptor was no other than a steward, and a 

 preceptorium was his residence. I am well aware that, ac- 

 cording to strict Latin, the vel should have been sen or sive, 

 and the order of the words u precept or is nostri, vel ballivi, 

 " qui " et " ibidem " should have been ibi; ibidem necessarily 

 having reference to two or more persons : but it will hardly 

 be thought fair to apply the niceties of classic rules to the 

 Latinity of the thirteenth century, the writers of which seem 

 to have aimed at nothing farther than to render themselves 

 intelligible. 



There is another remark that we have made, which, I think, 

 corroborates what has been advanced; and that is, that Richard 

 Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transac- 

 tions between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always 



