334 ANTIQUITIES 



LETTER XVI. 



BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; and 

 yet, notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. I. of 

 Beaufort's Register is to be found. This loss is much to be 

 regretted, as it must unavoidably make a gap in the history of 

 Selborne Priory, and perhaps in the list of it's priors, 



In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 

 1411. 



In vol. I. p. 24, of Beaufortfs Register, is the instrument of 

 the election of John Winchestre to be prior the substance as 

 follows : 



Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that 

 brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October 18th, 

 1410, and was buried November llth. That the bishop's 

 license to elect having been obtained, he and the whole con- 

 vent met in the chapter-house, on the same day, about the 

 hour of vespers, to consider of the election : that brother John 

 Wynchestre, then sub-prior, with the general consent appointed 

 the 12th of November, ad horam ejusdem diei capitularem, for 

 the business : when they met in the chapter-house, post mis- 

 sam de sancto Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church ; 

 to wit, Richard Elstede; Thomas Halyborne; John Lemyng- 

 ton, sacrista; John Stepe, cantor : Walter Ffarnham; Rich- 

 ard Putworth, celarius ; Hugh London; Henry Brampton, 

 alias Brompton ; John Winchestre, senior ; John Wynchestre, 

 junior; then " Proposito primitus verbo Dei," and then 

 ympno " Veni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum 

 " versiculo et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with 

 the appointment of the hour and place of election, being read, 

 alta voce, in valvis of the chapter-house ; John Wynchestre j 

 senior, the sub-prior, in his own behalf and that of all the 

 canons, and by their mandate, " quasdam monicionem et pro- 

 " testacionem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, et interposuit" 

 that all persons disqualified, or not having right to be pre- 



