ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 227 



Templars shall be in arrears for one year, that then the prior shall be 

 empowered to distrain upon their live stock in Bradeseth. The next 

 matter was a grant from Robert de Sunford to the priory for ever, of 

 a good and sufficient road, " cheminum," capable of admitting carriages, 

 and proper for the drift of their larger cattle, from the way which 

 extends from Sudington towards Blakemere, on to the lands which the 

 convent possesses in Bradeseth. 



The third transaction (though for want of dates we cannot say which 

 happened first and which last) was a grant from Robert Samford to the 

 priory of a tenement and its appurtenances in the village of Selborne, 

 given to the Templars by Americus de Vasci.* This property, by the 

 manner of describing it, "totum tenementum cum omnibus perti- 

 nentiis suis, scilicet in terris, & hominibus, in pratis & pascuis, & 

 nemoribus," &c., seems to have been no inconsiderable purchase, and 

 was sold for two hundred marks sterling, to be applied for the buying 

 of more land for the support of the holy war. 



Prior John is mentioned as the person to whom Yasci's land is con- 

 veyed. But in Willis's list there is no Prior John till 4339, several 

 years after the dissolution of the order of the Templars in 1312, so 

 that, unless Willis is wrong, and has omitted a prior John since 

 1262 {that being the date of his first prior), these transactions must 

 have fallen out before that date. 



I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon and the 

 Knight Templars ; but probably after his death his daughter Johanna 

 might have, and might bestow, Temple on that order in support of 

 the holy land; and, moreover, she seems to have been removing 

 from Selborne, when she sold her goods and chattels to the priory, as 

 mentioned above. 



Temple, no doubt, did belong to the knights, as may be asserted, not 

 only from its name, but also from another corroborating circumstance 

 of its being still a manor, tithe-free ; " for, by virtue of their order," 

 says Blackstone, " the lands of the Knights Templars were privileged 

 by the pope with a discharge from tithes." 



Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms preceptores 

 and preceptorium, not being able to determine what officer or edifice 

 was meant. But perhaps all the while the passage quoted above 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 ballivus 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 explanation, a 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 sive, and the order of the words "preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, 



* Americus Vasci, by his name, must have been an Italian, and had been 

 probably a soldier of fortune, and one of Gurdon's captains. Americus Vespucio, 

 the person who gave name to the new world, was a Florentine. 



Q2 



