228 
ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE 
qui"' — et ibidem" should hsiYe been ibi ; ibidem necessarily having 
reference to two 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, corro- 
borates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Richard- 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 /rater, it is true, among many other 
brothers, but subscribes with a kind of deference, as if, for the time 
being, his office rendered him an inferior in the community.* 
LETTEE XIL 
The ladies and daughter of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the only 
benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne ; for, in the year 1281, Ela 
Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her soul's health ; and 
the prior entered into an engagement that one of the convent should 
every day say a special mass for ever for the said benefactress, whether 
living or dead. She also engaged within five years to pay to the said 
convent one hundred marks of silver for the support of a chantry and 
chantry chaplain, who should perform his masses daily in the parish 
church of Selborne.f In the east end of the south aisle there are two 
sharp-pointed Gothic niches ; one of these probably was the place 
under which these masses were performed ; and there is the more 
reason to suppose as much, because, till within these thirty years, this 
space was fenced off with Gothic wooden railing, and was known by the 
name of the south chancel. J 
^ In two or three ancient records relating to St. Oswald's Hospital in the city 
of Worcester, printed by Dr. Nash. pp. 227, 228, of his collections for the history of 
Worcestershire, the words preceptorium and preceptoria signify the mastership of 
the said hospital : " ad preceptorium sive magisterium presentavit — preceptorii 
sive magisterii patronas. Vacavit dicta preceptoria sen magisterium — ad precep- 
toriam et regimen dicti hospitalis — Te preceptorem sive magistrum prefecimus." 
Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean 
the master's lodgings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may have 
been the office or employment of the said preceptor. 
A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's " Ducatus Leodiensis," or History of 
Leeds, p. 225, and a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before dates 
were inserted. — Du Fresne's Supplement: "Preceptorise, prsedia preceptoribus 
assignata." Cowel, in his "Law Dictionary," enumerates sixteen preceptoriai, 
or preceptories, in England ; but Sudington is not among them. — It is remarkable 
that Gurtlerus, in his "Historia Templariorum, " Amstel. 1691, never once 
mentions the words preceptor or preceptorium. 
t A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish church, and 
endowed with annual revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing 
mass daily for the soul of the founder, and others. 
t For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these 
Antiquities. — Mention is made of a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus de Selborne, in 
the time of Henry VIII. Was he chantry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose masses 
were probably continued to the time of the Keformation ? More will be said of 
this person hereafter. 
