Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/338

316 be able to withhold his hand from that vengeance which the vanquished so well deserved. A cowardly disposition would have been blinded by resentment; but this gallant heir apparent saw at once a method of converting a most desperate foe into a lasting friend. He raised the fallen veteran from the ground, he pardoned him, he admitted him into his confidence, and introduced him to the queen, then lying at Guildford, that very evening. This unmerited and unexpected lenity melted the heart of the rugged Gurdon at once; he became in an instant a loyal and useful subject, trusted and employed in matters of moment by Edward when king, and confided in till the day of his death.

I has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gurdon had availed himself by marrying women of property. By my evidences it appears that he had three wives, and probably in the following order: Constantia, Ameria, and Agnes. The first of these ladies, who was the companion of his middle life, seems to have been a person of considerable fortune, which she inherited from Thomas Makerel, a gentleman of Selborne, who was either her father or uncle. The second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam wife of Sir Adam, “quæ fui uxor,” etc., and talks of her sons under age. Now Gurdon had no son: and beside, Agnes, in another document, says, “Ego Agnes quondam uxor Domini Adæ Gurdon in pura et ligea viduitate mea:” but Gurdon could not leave two widows; and therefore it seems probable that he had been divorced from Ameria, who afterwards married and had sons. By Agnes Sir Adam had a daughter Johanna, who was his heiress, to whom Agnes in her life-time surrendered part of her jointure: he had also a bastard son.

Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called Temple, lying about two miles east of the church, which had been the property of Thomas Makerel.