OF SELBORNE 273 



that, according to strict Latin, the vel should have been seu or 

 sive, and the order of the words " preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, 

 "qui" — et "ibidem" should have been ihi ; 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 themselves 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 Selbome Priory, did always sign last as 

 a witness in the three deeds : he calls himself f rater, it is true, 

 among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of defer- 

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

 the community.! 



LETTER XIL 



The ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 

 benefactresses to the Priory of Selbome; for, in the year 1281, 

 Ela Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's 

 health ; and the prior entered into an engagement that one of 

 the convent should every day say a special mass for ever for the 

 said benefactress, whether living or dead. She also engaged 

 within five years to pay to the said convent one hundred marks 

 of silver for the support of a chantry and chantry-chaplain, who 

 should perform his masses daily in the parish church of Selbome.^ 



' In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's hospital in the city of 

 Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash, p. 227 and 228, of his collections for the history 

 of Worcestershire, the 'o/ovds preceftorium ani preceptoria signify the mastership ai 

 the said hospital : " zA preceptori-um sive magisterium presentamt—preceptorii sive 

 ' ' magisterii patronus. Vacavit dicta, preceptoria sen magisterium — ad preceptoriam 

 " et regimen dicti hospitalis — Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 



V^hexe preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean the 

 master's lodgings, or at least thspreceptc^s apartment, whatsoever may have been 

 the office or employment of the said preceptor. 



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

 p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before dates were 

 inserted. — Du Fresnis Supplement: " Preceptorice, prxdia preceptoriizes assig- 

 "nata". — Cornell, in his Law Dictionary, enumerates sixteen preceptoria, or pre- 

 ceptories, in England; 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. 



2 A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and en- 

 dowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing 

 mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 



18 



