family expenfe, could poffibly run in debt without fquandering
/ their revenues in a manner incompatible with their funclion.
Religious houfes might fometimes be diftreffed in their revenues
by fires among their buildings, or large dilapidations from ftorms,
& c .; but no fuch accident appears to have befallen the Priory at
Selborne. Thole fituate on public roads, or in great towns where
there were Ihrines of faints, were liable to be intruded on by travellers,
devotees, and pilgrims; and were fubjeft to the importunity
of the poor, who fwarmed at their gates to partake of doles and
broken viftuals. Of thefe difadvantages fome convents ufed to
complain, and efpecially thofe at Canterbury; but this Priory, from
it’s fequeftered fituation, could feldom be fubjedt to either of thefe
inconveniencies, and therefore we muff attribute it’s frequent debts
and embarrafiments, well endowed as it was, to the bad condudf
of it’s members, and a general inattention to the interefts of the
inftitution.
L E T T E R XVI.
B eaufort was bifhop of Winchejler from 1405 to 1447; and
yet, notwitbftanding this long epifcopate, only tom. I. of Beaufort’s
Regifter is to be found. This lofs is much to be regretted, as it
mutt unavoidably make a gap in the hiftory of Selborne Priory,
and perhaps, in the lift of it’s priors.
In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411.
In vol. I. p. 24, of Beaufort’s Regifter, is the inftrument of the
eledtion of John Wynchejbre to-be prior— the fubftance as follows :
Richard Eljlede, fenior canon,, lignifi.es to the bilhop that brother
Lhomas Wefton, the late prior, died October 18th, 1410, and was
buried November 11 th.— That the bilhop’s licenfe to elect having
been obtained he and the whole convent met in the chapter-houfe,
on the fame day, about the hour of vefpers, to confider of the election
: — that brother John Wyncheji're,. then fub-prior, with the
general confent, appointed the 12th of November, ad horam ejufdem
diet capitularem, for the bufinefs :— when they met in the chapter-
houfe, poft mijjhm de fanSto Spiritu, folemnly celebrated in the-
church;— to wit, Richard Eljlede', ‘Lhomas Halyborne; John Lemyng-
ton, facrifta; John Stepe, cantor; Walter Ffarnham.; Richard Put-
worth, celerarius; Hugh London, Henry Brampton, alias Brampton;
John Wyncheftre, fenior; John Wynchejlre, junior;— then “ Propolito
“ primitus verba Dei,” and then ympno “ Veni Creator Spiritus” '
being.