380 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, licentiam vestram 

 nobis concedere dignemini." 



LETTER XX. 



PRIOR Morton dying in 1471, two canons, by themselves, pro- 

 ceeded to election, and chose a prior ; but two more (one of them 

 Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected to the pro- 

 ceedings as informal; till at last the matter was compromised 

 that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate as he had 

 before. But the circumstances of this election will be best ex- 

 plained by the following extract : 



REG. WAYNFLETE, torn. II. pars i ma , fol. 7. 



Memorandum. A. D. 1471. August 22. 



William Wyndesor, a canon- regular of the Priory of Selborne, 

 having been elected prior on the death of brother John, appeared 

 in person before the bishop in his chapel at South Waltham. He 

 was attended on this occasion by Thomas London and John 

 Bromesgrove, canons, who had elected him. Peter Berne and 

 William Stratfeld, canons, also presented themselves at the same 

 time, complaining that in this business they had been overlooked, 

 and not summoned ; and that therefore the validity of the elec- 

 tion might with reason be called in question, and quarrels and 

 dissensions might probably arise between the newly chosen prior 

 and the parties thus neglected. 



After some altercation and dispute they all came to an agree- 

 ment with the new prior, that what had been done should be 

 rejected and annulled ; and that they would again, for this turn, 

 transfer to the bishop their power to elect, order, and provide 

 them another prior, whom they promised unanimously to admit. 



The bishop accepted of this offer before witnesses; and on 

 September 27, in an inner chamber near the chapel above-men- 

 tioned, after full deliberation, chose brother Thomas Fairwise, 

 vicar of Somborne, a canon-regular of Saint Augustine in the 

 Priory of Bruscough, in the diocese of Coventry and Litchfield, 

 to be prior of Selborne. The form is nearly as above in the last 

 election. The canons are again enumerated ; W. Wyndesor, sub- 

 prior, P. Berne, T. London, W. Stratfeld, J. Bromesgrove, who 



