330 THE ANTIQUITIES 



contigerit ; and in like manner uni famulo, whom he should 

 choose to wait on him, as to the servientibus of the prior. 



Item. "Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam 

 cameram" in the Priory, "cum focalibus necessariis seu 

 opportunis ad eundem." 



Item. " We will, ordain, &c. to the said P. Berne, an 

 annual pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the 

 Priory, to be paid by the hands of the prior quarterly." 



The bishop decrees farther, that John Sharp, and his 

 successors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, 

 and that before their installation. 



" Lecta et facta sunt haec in quodam alto oratorio," 

 belonging to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25, 1478, 

 in the presence of John Sharp, who gave his assent, and 

 then took the oath before witnesses, with the other oaths 

 before the chancellor, who decreed he should be inducted 

 and installed ; as was done that same day. 



How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself 

 in his priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, 

 whether by resignation, or death, or whether he was 

 removed by the visitor, does not appear ; we only find 

 that some time in the year 1484 there was no prior, and 

 that the bishop nominated canon Ashford to fill the 

 vacancy. 



LETTER XXIII 



THIS Thomas Ashford was most undoubtedly the last 

 prior of Selborne ; and therefore here will be the proper 

 place to say something concerning a list of the priors, and 

 to endeavour to improve that already given by others. 



At the end of bishop Tanner's Notitia Monastica, the 

 folio edition, among Brown Willis's Principals of Religious 

 Houses occur the names of eleven of the priors of Selborne, 

 with dates. But this list is imperfect, and particularly at 

 the beginning ; for though the Priory was founded in 

 1232, yet it commences with Nich. de Cantia, elected in 



