ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 2/5 



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 appurte- 

 nances in the village of Selborne, given to the Templars by 

 Americus de Vasci. 4 This property, by the manner of de- 

 scribing it, " totum tenementum cum omnibus pertinentiis 

 suis, scilicet in terris, & hominibus, in pratis & pascuis, & 

 nemoribus," etc., seems to have been no inconsiderable pur- 

 chase, 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 transactions must have fallen out before 

 that date. 



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 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 

 asserted, not only from its name, but also from another cor- 

 roborating circumstance of its being still a manor, tithe-free ; 

 " for, by virtue of their order," says 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 

 preceptoris 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 



