OF SELBORNE. 445 



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 a helmet on his head, 

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

 Gurdon ; " his arms were, (( Goulis et iii floures argent issant 

 de testes de leopards." 



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 Amelia, 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. 2 Johanna, the daughter and heiress of Sir 

 Adam, was married, I find, to Eichard Achard; she also 

 grants to the prior and convent lands and tenements in the 

 village of Selborne, which her father obtained from Thomas 

 Makerel ; and all also her goods and chattels in Selborne 

 for the consideration of two hundred pounds sterling. This 

 last business was transacted in the first year of Edward II. 



1 From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the Antiquarian 

 Repertory, vol. iii. p. 109, No. XXXI. G. W. 



2 Durton, now called Dorton, is still a common for the copyholders 

 of Selborne manor. G. W. 



