504 
THE ANTIQUITIES 
[LETT. 
I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon 
and the Knights 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 moving 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 cor- 
roborating circumstance cf its being still a manor tithe-free ; 
" for, by virtue of their order," says Dr. Blackstoue, " the lands 
of the Knights Templars were privileged by the pope with a 
discharge from tithes." 
Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms jpre,- 
ceptores and preceptoriiuu, 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 hallivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibidem," 
may help to explain the difficulty. For if it be allowed here 
that preceptor and hallivus 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 
pvemptoT, 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 
precej)tor was no other than a steward, and a preceptorium was 
his residence. I am well aware that, according to strict Latin, 
the Tcl should have been seu or sive, and the order of the words 
preceptoris nostri, vel ballivi, qui" — et "ibidem" should have 
been ihi ; ibidem, necessaril}- having reference to tvjo 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 Kichard 
Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transactions 
between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always sign last as 
a witness in the three deeds : he calls himself frcder, it is true, 
