The circumstances
of this gift are worthy of note. When Sir Alexander was a young
man he became enamoured of a beautiful girl, the daughter of a
poor burgess of the town.To prevent his marriage his parents
prevailed on him to join the Crusade, then on foot, for the
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. On his return from Palestine, he
found himself free, his parents having died, but on visiting the
dwelling of his fair lady he discovered, that having heard he
had died in battle, she had entered a convent. He himself took
avow of Celibacy, endowed the Monastery, dedicated it to the
Holy Sepulchre, relics of which he had placed in its Church, and
became its first Prior.
Selskar Abbey was suppressed in the
thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII, but not destroyed.
Cromwell finally destroyed it in 1649. The present Abbey Church
(Protestant) was built in 1818 on the east side of the ancient
tower-the ruins of the original Abbey Church being to the west.
Out-Churches of Selskar Abbey were St.Patrick's and
St.Doologue's.