ANTiaUlTIES OF SELBORNE. 
359 
dictorum virorum in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrin- 
cione 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 infonned 
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 New- 
burgh, 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 Henry IL by Rosamond. 
Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother,t was a 
great benefactress to the university of Oxford, to the canons of 
Oseney, the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in Ox- 
fordshire. She died very aged in the year 1300,]: 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 — Edmonson's History and Genealogical Account 
of the Grevilles, p. 23. 
LETTER XHL 
The reader is here presented with five forms respecting the 
choosing of a prior.§ Such evidences are rare and curious, and 
* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches and church- 
yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the convenieacy of procuring several witnesses to attest. 
t Ela Longspee, countess of Salisbury, in 1232 iouuded a monastery at Lacock, in the county 
of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, in the county of Somerset, in her widowhood, ty 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 Ougdale's Baronage, 1. 72, 1/5, 177 — Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1. 388, — 
Leland's Itin. H. 45. 
§ Ca&TA PBTBNS LICBNTIAM BlilGENDI PRELATUM A DoMINO EpiSCOPO WiNTONIKNSI. 
Defuncto prelalo forma petendi licentiam eligendi. 
Domino et patri in Christo reverendo domino et P. Dei gratia Wintoniensi episcopo, devoti sui 
filii supprior monasterii de S. Wintoaiensis dioceseos salutem cum subjectione humili, reveren- 
tiam, et honorem. Monasterio nostro de S. in quo sub proteciione vestra vivimus, sub habitu 
regulari, Prioris solacio destituto per mortem bone memorie. See. quondam Prioris uostri, qui tali 
hora in aurora diem clausit extremum, vestre paternitati reverende et dominationi precipue istum 
nostrum et nostri monasterii casum flebilem cum merore nunciamus ; ad vestre paternitatis re- 
fugium fratres nostres A. et C. canonicos destinantes, rogando et petendo devote quatenus nobis 
dignemini licenciam tribuere, ut monasterio predicto, Prioris regimine destituto, providere possi- 
