Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 275

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 3, Page 275

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] as is explained more fully elsewhere, [as above [in the portion] on the assise of novel
[002] disseisin.]¹ [Fee is also used in another sense, from the point of view of one who
[003] enfeoffs another, what one holds of another, as where one says ‘such a one holds so
[004] many fees of me by knight service.’] It may be drawn from what has been said that
[005] one may be seised of land or a rent in his demesne as of fee and as of free tenement, or
[006] only as of fee and not in demesne, or only as of a free tenement, in demesne but not in
[007] fee, as may be said of those who hold only for life in whatever way. And so one may be
[008] seised as of fee and of free tenement with respect to the property and in demesne,
[009] and another as to none of these but only as to the usufruct, as a farmer or fructuary
[010] who holds for a fixed term of years. It says ‘as of fee,’ so that ‘as’ (ut) may stand for
[011] ‘as though’ (quasi) and denote likeness, or for ‘as’ [and] denote the very truth: the
[012] very truth, as may be said of those who have rightful title and a rightful causa
[013] possidendi [acquired] from those who have the right to bestow them;² for ‘as though,’
[014] as may be said of those who enter without a causa and without rightful title on their
[015] own authority,³<as⁴ a younger brother or sister, an older being excluded> or⁵ by a
[016] gift made by a non-lord. Also if [they enter under] a condition, so that their titles⁶
[017] depend on the snares of fortune, as where⁷ a gift is made to a bastard and his heirs
[018] and when he has no heir of his body his bastard brother⁸ enters, marries a wife and
[019] has heirs of his body. If such persons die in seisin they die seised in their demesne as
[020] of fee; there ‘as’ (ut) is taken to mean ‘as though.’

The writ says ‘on the day he died.’

[022] ⁹The writ also contains the words ‘on the day he died’ or ‘on the day he assumed the
[023] habit of religion,’ [or] ‘on the day he undertook the journey of pilgrimage on which he
[024] died.’ Hence we must see how the word ‘day’ is to be taken. For there is a solar day
[025] and a lunar day, according as God divided light from darkness, [and] from these two
[026] a single day is formed called the artificial day, made up of the day preceding and the
[027] night following,¹⁰ which consists of twenty-four hours. An hour is made up of forty
[028] moments. The artificial day is divided into four parts. One begins at dusk and ends at
[029] midnight; the second begins at midnight and ends at dawn, the third begins at dawn
[030] and ends at midday, and the fourth begins at midday and ends at night. Each part
[031] contains six hours. Hence whether one dies on a solar or a lunar day he dies on the
[032] same artificial day, which is reckoned as one day. Hence no matter at what hour of
[033] that

Notes

1. Supra 59, 69, 117

2. Om: ‘et tunc . . . ut supra’

3. Not in list of addiciones supra i

4. ‘ut’

5. ‘vel’

6. ‘tituli dependeant’

7. ‘ut si’

8. ‘frater’

9. Infra 290, iv, 133

10. Infra iv, 134