ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 323 



from one of my papers, " per manum preceptoris vel ballivi nostri, 

 qui pro tempore fuerit, ibidem," may help to explain the difficulty. 

 For if it be allowed here that preceptor and fo//*V*J are synonymous 

 words, then the brother who took on him that office resided in the 

 house of the Templars at Sudington, 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 explana- 

 tion, & 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 stve, 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 them- 

 selves 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 transactions 

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

 a witness in the three deeds ; he calls himself frater, it is true, 

 among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of deference, 

 as if, for the time being, his office rendered him an inferior in the 

 community.* 



* In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's Hospital in the city of Wor- 

 cester, printed by Dr. Nash, pp. 227, 228, of his collections for the history of Worcester- 

 shire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the mastership of the said hospital : 

 "ad preceptorium sive magisterium presentavit preceptorii sive magisterii patronas. 

 Vacavit dicta preceptoria seu magisterium ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis 

 Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 



Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean the master's 

 lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may have been the office or 

 employment of the said preceptor. 



A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's " Ducatus Leodiensis," or History of Leeds, 



but Sudington is not among them. It is remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his " Historia 

 Templariorum," Amstel. 1691, never once mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 



