Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 123

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Volume 2, Page 123

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[001] property, the fee and the free tenement with seisin.¹ Some possessions are short
[002] and tenuous, others long and fortified by time; [short and tenuous], as where one
[003] is in seisin by intrusion or disseisin, or through one who has no right, or if he has
[004] some right has enfeoffed to the prejudice of the true lord, who has² the mere right
[005] and the property, or contrary to an agreement or to the modus of a gift or the like.³
[006] Wherever it is to the prejudice of another, possession, will always be tenuous until
[007] it has been fortified by time sufficient for title, through the negligence or weakness
[008] of the true lord.⁴ But if the gift is made by one who has the right and the property,
[009] the fee and the free tenement and seisin, when the donee has entered with the
[010] intention of retaining possession and the donor (and his household) has withdrawn,
[011] with no intention or expectation of returning, the gift will be good at once and a
[012] free tenement immediately acquired for the donee, since right and seisin come
[013] together without prejudice to anyone.⁵ Some possessions are peaceful, some disputed,
[014] and the dispute may be wrongful or rightful according as the possession is rightful
[015] or wrongful.⁶ Some possessions are continuous and extended, some interrupted and
[016] brief: [continuous and extended], as where a possessor in bad faith, as an intruder
[017] or disseisor, is in long and peaceful possession; such persons acquire a free tenement
[018] through time. [But] if the true lord impetrates at once, or attempts, even though
[019] unsuccessfully, to eject them, such possession is said to be interrupted,⁷ so that if
[020] he ejects them after a long time he will be said to have done so at once, [that is],
[021] provided the force and attack are continuous.⁸ Some possessions, both civil and
[022] natural, are rightful as against some persons but in both respects wrongful as
[023] against others, that is, it may be tenuous as against the true lord but valid and
[024] good with respect to others who have no right, as where one enfeoffs another of
[025] another's property, as touched upon above.⁹ Some possessions are precarious, as
[026] where one grants to another at will the right to use his house as a dwelling or a
[027] usufruct in his property, which is properly called bare since it may be revoked in
[028] season and out;¹⁰ if the grantee endeavors to retain seisin against the will of the true
[029] lord let him be ejected at once, or if he cannot be so ejected, ejected by the
[030] assise. There is possession granted for a price, and it then is important whether
[031] the price established is certain or uncertain. If certain and for a definite time, or
[032] in perpetuity, he cannot be ejected

Notes

1. Infra iii, 13

2. ‘habuerit’

3. Infra 134, 142, 145, 157

4. Supra 101, infra 127

5. Supra 94, infra 124, 134

6. Infra 134, 156

7. Infra 156

8. Ibid.

9. Om: ‘et talis ... tenera;’ supra 50, 57, 101

10. Infra 157, 158, iii, 13, 127