ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOENE 
229 
The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety and 
firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for she seems to 
have made every provision for the payment of the sum stipulated within 
the appointed time, and to have felt much anxiety lest her death, or 
the neglect of her executors or assigns, might frustrate her intentions. — 
Et si contingat me in solucione perdicte pecunie annis predictis in 
parte aut in toto deficere, quod absit ; concedo et obligo pro me et 
assignatis meis, quod Yice-Comes . . . Oxon et qui pro 
tempore fuerint, per omnes terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea 
mobilia et immobilia ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad 
solucionem predictam faciendam possent nos compellere." And again — 
"Et si contingat dictos religiosos labores seu expensas facere circa 
predictam pecuniam, seu circa partem dicte pecunie; volo quod 
dictorum religiosorum impense et labores levantur ita quod predicto 
priori vel uni canonicorum suorum saperhiis simplici verbo credatur 
sine alterius honere probacionis ; et quod utrique predictorum virorum 
in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrincione super me facienda 
tenear. — Dat. apud Wareborn die sabati proxima ante festum St. Marci 
evangeliste, anno regni regis Edwardi tertio decimo." * 
But the reader, perhaps, would wish to be better informed respecting 
this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no particulars. 
The Ela Longspee, therefore, above-mentioned, was a lady of high 
birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de Newburgh, the 
sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter of the famous 
Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, by William Longspee, natural son 
of King Edward II., by Eosamond. 
Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,+ " was a 
great benefactress to the University of Oxford, to the canons of Oseney, 
the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in Oxfordshire. She 
died very aged, in the year 1300, J and was buried before the high altar 
in the abbey church of Oseney, at the head of the tomb of Henry 
D'Oily, under a flat marble, on which was inlaid her portraiture, in the 
habit of a vowess, engraved on a copper-plate." — " Edmondson's History 
and Genealogical Account of the Grevilles," p. 23. 
LETTEE XIII, 
The reader is here presented with the titles of five forms 
respecting the choosing of a prior. " Charta petens licentiam 
elegendi prelatum a Domino episcopo Wintoniensi :" — " Forma licentie 
* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches 
and church-yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency of procuring 
several witnesses to attest. 
t Ela Longspee, Countess of Salisbury, in ] 232, founded a monastery at Lacock, 
in the county of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, in the county of Somerset, 
in her widowhood, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Bernard. — Camden. 
t Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen years. 
About this lady and her mother consult Dugdale's "Baronage," i. 72, 175,177; 
Dugdale's "Warwickshire," i. 383 ; Leland's " Iti^." ii. 45. 
