212 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOHNE. 
1596, William Inkforbye, vicar. 
May 1606, Thomas Phippes, vicar. 
June 1031, Kalph Austine, vicar. 
July 1632, John Longer orth. This unfortunate gentleman, living in 
the time of Cromwell's usurpation, was deprived of his preferment for 
many years, probably because he would not take the league and 
covenant ; for I observe that his father-in-law, the Reverend Jethro 
Beal, rector of Faringdon, which is the next parish, enjoyed his benefice 
during the whole of that unhappy period. Longworth, after he was 
dispossessed, retired to a little tenement about one hundred and fifty 
yards from the church, where he earned a small pittance by the practice 
of physic. During those dismal times it was not uncommon for the 
deposed clergy to take up a medical character ; as was the case in 
particular, I know, with the Reverend Mr. Yalden, rector of Compton, 
near Guildford, in the county of Surrey. Yicar Longworth used 
frequently to mention to his sons, who told it to my relations, that, 
the Sunday after his deprivation, his puritanical successor stepped into 
the pulpit with no small petulance and exultation : and began his 
sermon from Psalm xx. 8, " They are brought down and fallen ; but we 
are risen and stand upright." This person lived to be restored in 1660, 
and continued vicar for eighteen years ; but was so impoverished by 
his misfortunes, that he left the vicarage-house and premises in a very 
abject and dilapidated state. 
July 1678. Richard Byfield, who left eighty pounds by will, the 
interest to be applied to apprentice out poor children ; but this money, 
lent on private security, was in danger of being lost, and the bequest 
remained in an unsettled state for near twenty years, till 1700 ; so that 
little or no advantage was derived from it. About the year 1759 it 
was again in the utmost danger by the failure of a borrower ; but, by 
prudent management, has since been raised to one hundred pounds 
stock in the three per cents reduced. The trustees are the vicar and 
the renters or owners of Temple, Priory, Grange, Blackmore, and 
Oakhanger-house, for the time being. This gentleman seemed inclined 
to have put the vicarial premises in a comfortable state ; and began 
by building a solid stone wall round the front court, and another in the 
lower yard, between that and the neighbouring garden ; but was 
interrupted by death from fulfilling his laudable intentions. 
April, 1680, Barnabas Long became vicar. 
June, 1681. This living was now in such low estimation in Magdalen 
College that it descended to a junior fellow, Gilbert White, M.A. who 
was instituted to it in the thirty-first year of his age. At his first 
coming he ceiled the chancel, and also floored and wainscoted the 
parlour and hall, which before were paved with stone, and had naked 
walls ; he enlarged the kitchen and brewhouse, and dug a cellar and 
well ; he also built a large new barn in the lower yard, removed the 
hovels in the front court, which he laid out in walks and borders ; and 
entirely planned the back garden, before a rude field with a stone-pit in 
the midst of it. By his will he gave and bequeathed " the sum of forty 
pounds to be laid out in the most necessary repairs of the church ; that j 
is^ in strengthening and securing such parts as seem decaying and j 
