196 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



I find not the least traces of any concerns between Giirdon 

 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 

 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 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 

 preccptoris 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 Svtdington, 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, according to strict Latin, 

 the vel should have been seu or sive, and the order of the words 

 " preceptoris 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 traiisactions 

 between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always sign last as 

 a witness in the three deeds : he calls himself f rater, it is true, 



