OF SELBORNK. 
351 
from 1232 to 1295 is a fpace of fixty-three years ; a long period 
for one man to be employed in adlive life ! Should any one doubt 
whether all thefe particulars can relate to one and the fame perfon, 
I fliould wifh him to attend to the following reafons why they 
might. In the firft place, the documents from the priory mention 
but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no fon lawfully begotten : and 
in the next, we are to recoiled that he muft have probably been 
a man of uncommon vigour both of mind and body ; fince no 
one, unfupported by fuch accomplifiiments, could have engaged 
in fuch adventures, or could have borne up againft the difficulties 
which he fometimes mud have encountered ; and, moreover, we 
have modern inflances of perfons that have maintained their 
abilities for near that period. 
Were we to fuppofe Gurdon to be only twenty years of age 
in 1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three; after which ad- 
vanced period it could not be expeded that he fliould live long. 
From the filence, therefore, of my evidences it feems probable 
that this extraordinary perfon finifhed his life in peace, not lono- 
after, at his manfion of Temple. Gurdon' s feal had for its device 
—a man, with an helmet on his head, drawing a crofs-bow ^ 
the legend, " Sigillum Ade de Gurdon his arms v/ere, *' Goulis 
iii fioures argent iffant de teftes de leopards'*^." 
If the ftout and unfubmitting fpirit of Gurdon could be fo much 
influenced by the belief and fuperftition of the times, much more 
might the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And accordingly 
we find that Amerla^ by the confent and advice of her fons, though 
faid to be all under age, makes a grant for ever of fome lands 
No" XXx/^' ^^l^^^i^" of rw Martin, Efq. 3n the Antiquarian Repertory, p. ,09, 
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