ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 387 



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 Ash- 

 ford 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 1262 ; so that for the first thirty years 

 no prior is mentioned ; yet there must have been one or more. 

 We were in hopes that the register of Peter de Rupibus would 

 have rectified this omission ; but, when it was examined, no in- 

 formation of the sort was to be found. From the year 1410 the 

 list is much corrected and improved ; and the reader may depend 

 on its being thence forward very exact. 



A LIST OF THE PRIORS OF SELBORNE PRIORY, FROM BROWN 

 WILLIS'S PRINCIPALS OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES, WITH AD- 

 DITIONS WITHIN [ ] BY THE AUTHOR. 



[John was prior, sine dat.]* 



Nich. de Cantia el. 1262. 



[Peter was prior in 1271.] 



[Richard was prior in 1280.] 



Will. Basing was prior in - 1 299. 



Walter de Insula el. in 1324. 

 [Some difficulties, and a devolution; but the election 

 confirmed by bishop Stratford.] 



John de Winton - .... 1339. 



Thomas Weston 1377. 



* See, in Letter XI. of these Antiquities, rhe reason why prior John , who had transactions 



with the Knights-Templars, is placed in the list before the year 1262. 



2 c 2 



