Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 311

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Volume 2, Page 311

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[001] those pleas, and all assises and all pleas which were put to the first session before
[002] the justices, with the writs of those assises and pleas, so that those assises and pleas
[003] shall not remain by your failure or that of your summons. Cause also to be proclaimed
[004] and made known throughout your bailiwick that all assises and pleas
[005] adjourned and not disposed of¹ before our justices of the bench,² or before our
[006] justices who last travelled in your county to hear all pleas, or before our justices
[007] sent thither to take assises of novel disseisin and to deliver gaols, be before our
[008] said justices at that time at such a place in the same state in which they remained
[009] by our order or³ that of our aforesaid itinerant justices or our justices of the bench.
[010] Also summon by good summoners all those who have been sheriffs since the last
[011] circuit of our aforesaid justices in those parts, that they then be before our said
[012] justices with the writs of assises and pleas which they received during their period
[013] of office, to answer concerning such period as they ought to answer⁴ before our
[014] itinerant justices. And have there the summoners and this writ. Witness etc.’
[015] Sometimes when the justices must travel in several counties, they may well make
[016] general summonses in their own name in the aforesaid form, in this way.

Writ when the justices themselves issue a summons in their own name and by their own writ.

[018] ‘Such a one and his companions, justices itinerant in such a county, to the sheriff,
[019] such a one, greeting. We order you on behalf of the lord king to summon by good
[020] summoners all the archbishops etc. (exactly as above).’ ⁵The general summons
[021] having been made, as stated above, we must see when pleas in the bench or
[022] elsewhere begin to be before the itinerant justices and cease to be before the
[023] justices of the bench or elsewhere, since the summons may be made long before
[024] the eyre. It is clear that this does not take place until the justices begin the eyre,
[025] for it may be held up or cancelled or suspended in many ways. Hence a day will
[026] always be given the parties by the justices of the bench subject to this condition,
[027] ‘unless the itinerant justices shall have earlier come to those parts,’ so that the
[028] pleas will always remain in the bench until the eyre has begun. If a day has been
[029] given the parties [in the bench] before the general summons and the eyre begins
[030] before that day, that day will be abbreviated to the day of the eyre by the general
[031] summons and

Notes

1. 1224 adds: ‘vel quae fuerunt summonita,’

2. 1226: ‘apud Westmonasterium,’ and so 1244

3. ‘vel per’

4. ‘respondere debent,’ as Cal. Close Rolls 1242-47, 236 (1244); 1247-51, 98 (27 Dec. 1247); 1254-56, 151 (12 Dec. 1254), but ‘responderi debet,’ OA, OC, CE, CM, MG, Rot. Litt. Cl., ii, 151; Cal. Cl. Rolls 1227-31, 96 (30 Mar. 1228), 230 (23 Jan. 1229), 241 (27 May 1229), 379 (30 Oct. 1229)

5. New paragraph