Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 220

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Volume 2, Page 220

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[001] at a hundred shillings.¹ ²After the extent and valuation have been made as aforesaid
[002] they may be disputed and impugned in many ways, [by saying] that they were
[003] not properly made, perhaps because the items of the inheritance were valued at
[004] more or less than they are worth, as when such a thing worth only so much, or
[005] though worth more than so much, was valued at so much. [The assignment may
[006] be contested as well as the valuation, that is, though such a manor is worth so
[007] much, the extenders only assigned to the complainant such a thing, worth less.]
[008] If the complaint is a just one, there will be need for a second extent and valuation,
[009] [or assignment,] as will be explained more fully below.³ When the extent and
[010] valuation has been properly made, let partition be made of the things comprising the
[011] inheritance into two or more parts, depending upon the number of co-heir
[012] parceners, so that each part is equal in every respect to the other, and partition
[013] having thus been made, let each co-heir be assigned his part. Not in such
[014] a way that each may choose his share in order, but rather, so that fortune is made
[015] the judge of such distribution,⁴ that each may have the portion that falls to him by
[016] lot. Therefore let the names of the co-heirs and [their] parcels be written in
[017] [separate] schedules and the several schedules of parcels placed without warning
[018] in the hands of a layman unable to read, he to give each parcener one of the
[019] schedules and each of them to remain content with the portion contained in that
[020] schedule, whether he likes it or not. This will be the procedure unless by mutual
[021] consent it is agreed that each have his choice in turn, according to the privilege of
[022] age, that is, the eldest first, then the next oldest, and so on. And by whichever
[023] means the assignment is accomplished, let there be enrolled at once, for perpetual
[024] record, what, to whom, and where, and by what parcels the share of each was
[025] assigned, in lands and tenements, military fees and rents and all other things. And
[026] if there is any land which ought after a time to revert to the heirs, as dower land
[027] or any other whatever, let a record be made of who ought to take what, and then
[028] let the homages be taken as soon as the services are attorned. ⁵Not all inheritable
[029] things fall into the distribution, sometimes because of the privilege, because of the
[030] person to whom the thing falls by reason of age, as because of primogeniture and
[031] anescia, as will be explained below, [sometimes] because of the thing itself, which
[032] does not admit of division, [or] because of the agreement of the co-heirs who wish
[033] some part of the inheritance to remain to themselves in common. We must first
[034] consider what things come into division, for that once seen it will be easy to perceive
[035] what do not.

Notes

1. Infra iv, 203

2. New paragraph

3. Supra 211: the writs seem to have been inserted later.

4. C. 6.43.3.1; ‘Sancimus itaque in omnibus huiusmodi casibus rei iudicem fortunam esse, sortem etenim inter altercantes adhibendum’; G’terbock, 133 n.

5. New paragraph