LETTER IX 



IT has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gurdon 

 had availed himself by marrying women of property. By 

 my evidences it appears that he had three wives, and pro- 

 bably in the following order ; Constantia, Ameria, and Agnes. 

 The first of these ladies, who was the companion of his 

 middle life, seems to have been a person of considerable 

 fortune, which she inherited from Thomas Makerel, a 

 gentleman of Selborne, who was either her father or uncle. 

 The second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam wife of 

 Sir Adam, " quae fui uxor," &c., and talks of her sons 

 under age. Now Gurdon had no son : and beside, Agnes, 

 in another document, says, " Ego Agnes quondam uxor 

 Domini Ada Gurdon in pura et ligea viduitate mea:" 

 but Gurdon could not leave two widows ; and therefore 

 it seems probable that he had been divorced from Ameria, 

 who afterwards married and had sons. By Agnes Sir Adam 

 had a daughter Johanna, who was his heiress, to whom 

 Agnes in her life-time surrendered part of her jointure : 

 he had also a bastard son. 



Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called 

 Temple, lying about two miles east of the church, which 

 had been the property of Thomas Makerel. 



In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in 

 his own name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for 

 leave to build him an oratory in his manor-house, " in curia 

 sua." Licenses of this sort were frequently obtained by 

 men of fortune and rank from the bishop of the diocese, 

 the archbishop, and sometimes, as I have seen instances, 

 from the pope ; not only for convenience-sake, and on 



