SELBORNE HUNDRED 



SELBORNE 



Within two years they were granted in dower to 

 Ameria. 41 During her tenure she made several gifts 

 of privileges and lands within those she held in 

 Selborne to the prior and convent. In 1234 she 

 released to them right in haybote and housebote and 

 common in their wood at Selborne and ' in the 

 common pasture of Durtone," saving to all her men 

 of Selborne common with all their animals in the 

 said pasture as in times past.' 43 Adam Gurdon her 

 son, who was of age and in possession of his lands by 

 1253," also held lands in Selborne of the prior and 

 convent by grant of Thomas Makerel, made probably 

 soon after 1253 to Adam and Constance his wife, for 

 the annual rent of a pair of white gloves of the value 

 of \d.^ These lands were those comprised in 

 the manor of SELBORNE M4KEREL, afterwards 

 known as GURDON. 46 Walter son of Thomas 

 Makerel confirmed the same to Adam and Con- 

 stance probably about I26o. 47 In April, 1262, Adam 

 de Gurdon granted to the prior and convent right of 

 housebote and haybote in ' the wood of Norchere, 

 saving to the said Adam and his wife Constance and 

 their heirs and to the men of Selborne whom they 

 have by the gift of Thomas Makerel that their pigs 

 shall be free from pannage in the said wood of Nor- 

 chore so many as pertain to the tenement of la Forde 

 in Selborne.' 48 In return the prior and convent 

 granted that Adam and Constance should hold of 

 them all the land and tenement that they had in 

 Selborne by gift of Thomas Makerel. In the June 

 of the same year licence was given to Adam de 

 Gurdon to build a domestic chapel in their court of 

 Selborne ' quae fuit quondam Thomae Makerel.' 4> 

 The next mention of the manor of Selborne Makerel 

 comes in an inquisition ad quod damnum of I 307, when 

 Joan the daughter of Adam de Gurdon was licensed 

 to transfer the manor of East Tisted with loo acres 

 and a rent in Selborne to James de Norton, and was 

 said to still hold the manor of Selborne Makerel, a 

 manor worth 10, for life, of the prior and convent 

 of Selborne. 60 



From this time the history of the manor apparently 

 ceases. Whether, as Gilbert White supposes, Joan 

 granted it to the Knights Templars, or whether after 

 her death it merged in the manor proper of Sel- 

 borne, must remain uncertain. (See under Temple.) 



In 1271 Adam de Gurdon granted a place in Sel- 

 borne called ' La Pleystowe ' (the modern Plestor) to 

 the prior and convent to hold there their market which 

 they had by the gift of King Henry and to build 

 houses and shops upon it, saving reasonable way for 

 him and his heirs to a tenement and some crofts at 

 the upper end of the Plestor near the churchyard. 51 

 Further, he granted that the prior and convent should 

 peaceably hold the houses and curtilages which they 

 had erected on their land in Selborne in which Adam 

 had a right of common for himself and men, and 



made it lawful henceforth for the prior and convent 

 or himself to build on their respective lands in Selborne 

 which touched on the king's highway.' 3 



The manor of TEMPLE SOTHERINGTON 

 oiSOUTHINGTON (Sudynton, Sydyngton,xiii cent.) 

 is more generally known in later days as the manor of 

 Temple, including the farm of Sotherington. 



The Knights Templars had a preceptory at Sother- 

 ington and held the manor of Sotherington as early as 

 1240." About 1250 Robert de Sanford, master of 

 the order in England, granted all the tenements, 

 lands, and meadows which the Templars had in Sel- 

 borne by the gift of Almeric de Sacy" to the prior and 

 convent of Selborne for 200 ' to buy other lands in 

 aid of the Holy Land." About ten years later he 

 granted I o/. ' from the chamber at the Templars' house 

 of Sudington ' to the prior and convent in lieu of lOi. 

 worth of annual rent in lands and rents promised to 

 the convent and to be settled on them as soon as 

 possible, with power of distraint in case of failure, to 

 be levied ' on the chattels found on the land which 

 was Roger de Cherlecote's in Bradesate (Bradshott), 

 which is in the hands of the Templars.' M About the 

 same date also the Templars granted the prior and 

 convent 'a sufficient way for 

 leading cars and carts and driv- 

 ing cattle along the road which 

 leads from Sotherington to 

 Blackmoor." 6 In 1275 the 

 Master of the Templars was 

 said to have withdrawn the 

 suit owed to the hundred court 

 of Selborne for the manor of 

 Sotherington for the past thirty 

 years, though by what warrant 

 the jurors did not know. Also 

 he had encroached on the king's 

 land in the forest of Woolmer 



to the injury of the king, and again they knew not by 

 what warrant. 67 One small farmhouse is the only 

 building that preserves the name of Sotherington at 

 the present day. 



According to Gilbert White the lands which Adam 

 Gurdon held in Selborne by gift of Thomas Makerel 

 were the lands surrounding and including the modern 

 Temple Farm, while the Templars at a contemporary 

 date held Sotherington. Then by a supposed grant 

 by Joan, the heiress of Adam Gurdon the younger, 

 Temple, not then known by that name, was united 

 with Sotherington in the hands of the Templars. The 

 tradition that Adam Gurdon lived at Temple has 

 become firmly rooted, though as far as documentary 

 evidence goes there is nothing to prove that his lands 

 in Selborne were identical with Temple, and the few 

 years that the Templars could have held it between 

 the traditional grant after Adam's death in 1304 or 

 1305 and the suppression of their order in 1312 



V 



THI KNIGHTS TEMP- 

 LARS. Argent a crotl 

 gules and a chief table. 



41 See account of East Tisted Manor. 



42 The mo.lern Dorton Woods, which lie 

 between Selborne and the priory. 



48 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 

 1 6. 



44 By an inquisition *ad quod damnum ' 

 made in that year he was allowed to hold 

 his lands in Tisted and Selborne as half a 

 knight's fee instead of by serjeanty. Inq. 

 p.m. 38 Hen. Ill, No. 18. 



44 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 

 52. Although here dated as c. 1260-70 



it seems more likely to be previous to the 

 confirmation made by Walter, and dated 

 1250-60, p. 41. 



46 Ibid. 91. Here the court of ' Gordon' 

 is evidently identical with the court of 

 Selborne Mackerel. 



r > Ibid. 41. 4 Ibid. 55. Ibid. 56. 



60 Inq. a. q. d. i Edw. II, No. 70. 



61 Selborne Chart, i, 64. This tenement, 

 according to Gilbert White, was the 

 ' manorial house of the street manor.' By 

 the eighteenth century it was only a poor 



7 



cottage known by the name of Elliot's. 

 White, Antiq, of Selborne, Letter x. 



M Selborne Chart, i, 64. 



68 Cat. Chart. R. 1226-57, P- 251. 



64 In the reign of Hen. Ill this Al- 

 meric held 601. rent in Selborne with 

 his manor of Barton, by gift of King 

 John. Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 235*, 

 236*. 



55 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 

 49. * Ibid. 



" Kit. HunJ. (Rec. Com.), ii, 224. 



