224 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons to the 

 Bishop of Winchester to Parliament, part of which I shall transcribe on 

 account of the insolent menace which is said therein to have been 

 denounced against the English language : " qualiter rex Franciae de 

 terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose decepit, earn nobis 



nequiter detinendo vero predictis fraude et nequitia non 



contentus, ad expugnationem regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum 

 copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni 

 ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam si 

 concepte iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod 

 Deus avertat, omnino de terra delere proponit." Dated 30th September, 

 in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii.* 



The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon's 

 appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evidences 

 give of him is that in 1232, being the 16th of Henry III., he was the 

 King's bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton. Now, from 1 232 to 

 1295 is a space of sixty-three years, a long period for one man to be 

 employed in active life ! Should any one doubt whetlier all these 

 particulars can relate to one and the same person, I should wish him to 

 attend to the following reasons why they might. In the first place, the 

 documents from the priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who 

 had no son lawfully begotten ; and in the next, we are to recollect that 

 he must have probably been a man of uncommon vigour, both of mind 

 and body, since no one unsupported by such accomplishments could 

 have engaged in such adventures, or could have borne up against the 

 difficulties which he sometimes must have encountered ; and, moreover, 

 we have modern instances of persons that have maintained their abilities 

 for near that period. 



Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty years of age in 1232, 

 in 1295 he would be eighty-three ; after which advanced period it could 

 not be expected that he should live long. From the silence, therefore, 

 of my evidences it seems probable that this extraordinary person 

 finished his life in peace, not long after, at his mansion of Temple. 

 Gurdon's seal had for its device a man, with an helmet on his head, 

 drawing a cross-bow; the legend, " Sigillum Ade de Gurdon;" his 

 arms were, " Goulis, iii floures argent issant de testes de leopards." t 



If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so much 

 influenced by the belief and superstition of the times, much more might 

 the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And accordingly we find that 

 Ameria, by the consent and advice of her sons, though said to be 

 all under age, makes a grant for ever of some lands down by the stream 

 at Durton ; and also of her right of the common of Durton itself.* 

 Johanna, the daughter and heiress of Sir Adam, was married, I find, 

 to Richard Achard; she also grants to the prior and convent lands and 

 tenements in the village of Selborne, which her father obtained from 



* Reg. Winton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not bishop of 

 Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 



t From the collection of Thomas Martin. Esq , in the " Antiquarian Repertory," 

 p. 10!), No. XXXI. 



t Durton, now called Dorton, is still a common for the copyholders of Selborne 

 manor. 



