224 
ANTIQUITIES OE SELBOENE. 
The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons to the 
Bishop of Winchester to Parliament, part of which I shall transcribe on 
account of the insolent menace which is said therein to have been 
denounced against the English language : — qualiter rex Francias de 
terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter et cautelose decepit, eam nobis 
nequiter detinendo vero predictis fraude et nequitia non 
contentus, ad expugnationem regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum 
copiosa multitudine congregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni 
ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam si 
concepte iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod 
Deus avertat, omnino de terra delere vro'ponity Dated 30th September, 
in the year of King Edward's reign xxiii.* 
The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon's 
appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evidences 
give of him is that in 1232, being the 16th 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 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 an 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." f 
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 J 
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 
* Reg. Winton, Stratford, but query Stratford ; for Stratford was not bishop of 
Winton till 1323, near thirty years afterwards. 
t From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq., in the " Antiquarian Repertory, " 
p. 100, No. XXXI. 
X Durton, now called Dortou, is still a common for the copyholders of Selborne 
manor. 
