358 
A N T I QJJ I T I E S. 
explanation, a preceptor was no other than a fteward, and a precep- 
tor'iumyNd.% his refidence. I am well aware that, according to flrifft 
Latin, the vel lliould have been feu or five, and the order of the 
words precept or h nojlri, vel baUivi, qui" — et ibidem'" fhould 
have been ; neceffarily' having reference tzvo or more 
perfons : but it will hardly be thought fair to apply the niceties 
of claffic rules to the Latinity of the thirteenth century, the writers 
of which feem to have aimed at nothing farther than to render 
themfelves intelligible. 
There is another remark that v/e have made, which, I think, 
corroborates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Richard 
Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the tranfaftions 
between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always fign lajl as a 
witnefs in the three deeds : he calls himfelf frater, it is true, 
among many other brothers, but fubfcribes with a kind of deference, 
as if, for the time being, his office rendered him an inferior in the 
community "J. 
P In two or three ancient records relating to St. OfivalJ's hofpital in the city of 
Worcejlcr, printed by Dr. Najh, p. aa/ and 228, of his colleftions for the hiftory of 
V/orcefjcrfbire, the words preceptorium and preceptorla fignify the mafterjliip of the faid 
hofpital : " ad preceptorium five magiJJerhm prefentavit — prccepiorii five tnagiftern patro- 
" nils. Vacavit ditta preceptoria feu magijierium — ad preceptorium et regimen difti 
*' \\o\'v>\X.?X\%---Tt preceptorem five magiftrum prefecimus." 
Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean the mafter's 
lodgings, or at lead the preceptor ^ apartment, whatfoever may have been the office or 
employment of the faid preceptor, 
A. preceptor is mentioned in TIm-eJbfs Ducatus Leodienjis, or Hiftory of Leeds, p. 225, 
and a deed witnefled by the preceptor and chaplain before dates were inferted. --- D-u 
Fnfne's Supplement : " Preceptoricf, praedia preceptoribus affignata."---Coarf/, in his 
Law Diftionary, enumerates fixteen preceptoria^, or preceptories, in England; but 
Sudington is not among them. — It is remarkable that Gurtierus, in his Hiforia Templariorum 
Anaftel. 1691, never once mentions the viovds preceptor or preceptorium. 
LETTER 
