X.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
499 
regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine 
congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejiisdem 
incolas hostiliter jam invasnrus, linguajti Anr/licam, si coricepte 
iniqnitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, qnod 
Deus avertat, omnino de terra ddcrc 2^'^^o]ionit!' Dated 30th 
September, in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii.^ 
The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gordon's 
appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi- 
dences give of him is, that, in 1232, being the sixteenth of 
Henry III. he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town 
of Alton. Now, from 1232 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 whether 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 some- 
times 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, iii 
floures argent issant de testes de leopards." ^ 
If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so 
1 Reg. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not 
Bishop of Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 
2 From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the ''Antiquarian Reper- 
tory," p. 109, No. XXXI. 
