OF SELBOBNE, 
445 
iliey might. In the first place^ tlie 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 Ameria, 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.^ Johanna, the daughter and heiress of Sir 
Adam, was married, I find, to Richard 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. 
^ 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. 
