A >3 r i QJJ I T I ^ S 
LETTER Ml. 
o UR forefathefs in this village were no doubt as bufy and 
fcuftling, and as important, asourfelves : yet have their names and 
tranfaftions been forgotten -from eentury to century, and have 
funk into oblivion; nor has this happened only to the vulgar, 
but even to men remarkable and famous in their generation. I 
was led into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers 
that Sir Jdam Gtirdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, and a man of 
'the firft rank and property in the parifh. By Sir Adam Gurdon I 
would be underftood to mean that leading and accomplifhed 
ttialtecofitent in the Mountfort fadtion, who diftinguiihed himfelf 
by his daring conduft in the reign of Henry III. The firft that 
•vve hear of this perfon in my papers is, that with two others he was 
bailiff of Alton before the fixteenth of Henry III. wz. about 1231, 
and then not knighted. Who Gurdon was, and whence he came, 
does not appear : yet there is reafon to fufpedt that he was ori- 
ginally a mere foldier of fortune, who had raifed himfelf by mar- 
rying women of property. The name of Gurdon does not feem 
to be known in the foi.ith ; but there is a name fb like it in an 
adjoining kingdom, and which belongs to two or three noble 
families, that it is probable this remarkable perfon was a North 
Briton ; and the more fo, fince the Chriftian name of Adam is a 
diftinguifhed one to this day among the family of the Gordons. — 
But, be this as it may, '^ix Adam Gurdon has been noticed by all the 
writers of Engl'iP) hiftory for his bold difpofition and difafFedled 
fpirit. 
