Vlll.J 
OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER YIIT. 
Our forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and 
bustling, and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names 
and transactions been forgotten from century to century, and have 
sunk into oblivion ; nor has this happened only to the vulgar, 
but even to men remarkable and famous in their generation. 
I was led into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers 
that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, and a man 
of the first rank and property in the parish. By Sir Adam 
Gurdon I w^ould be understood to mean that leading and accom- 
plished malcontent in the Mountfort faction who distinguished 
himself by his daring conduct in the reign of Henry III. The 
first that w^e hear of this person in my papers is, that with 
two others he was bailiff of Alton before the sixteenth of 
Henry III. viz. about 1231, and then net knighted. Who 
Gurdon was, and whence he came, does not appear: yet there 
is reason to suspect that he was originally a mere soldier of 
fortune, who had raised himself by marrying women of pro- 
perty. The name of Gurdon does not seem to be known in 
the south; but there is a name so like it in an adjoining 
kingdom, and which belongs to tw^o or three noble families, 
that it is probable this remarkable person was a North Briton ; 
and the more so, since the Christian name of Adam is a distin- 
guished one to this day among the family of the Gordons. 
But, be this as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been noticed 
by all the writers of English history for his bold disposition 
and disaffected spirit, in that he not only figured during the 
successful rebellion of Leicester, but kept up the war after the 
defeat and death of that baron, intrenching himself in the woods 
of Llampshire, towards the town of Farnham. After the battle 
of Evesham, in which jMountfort fell, in the year 12G5, Gurdon 
might not think it safe to return to his house for fear of a 
surprise ; but cautiously fortified himself amidst the forests and 
woodlands with wdiich he was so well acquainted. Prince 
Edward, desirous of putting an end to the troubles which had 
