Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 302

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Volume 3, Page 302

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[001] according as tenements are different and as the action is possessory or proprietary,
[002] because before his full age of twenty-one years an heir may claim the seisin of his
[003] ancestor in a possessory action against one of full age by assise of mortdancestor, [In
[004] a proprietary action by writ of right, regardless of the kind of tenement, a minor cannot
[005] claim, nor may one of full age claim against him, before the minor-tenant reaches
[006] the full age of twenty-one years.]¹ but when he has thus obtained,² if it is claimed
[007] from him by the assise, he will not answer to an assise [before his full age], [that is, in
[008] burgage and socage before the full age connected with such tenures.] In a military fee
[009] he will no more answer to an assise before the full age of twenty-one years than he will
[010] be answered if he claims a military fee by the assise. He will answer to an assise³ no
[011] more than if it were claimed by writ of right in a proprietary action.⁴ [That a minor
[012] may not claim effectively by the assise before he is of full age, according to the
[013] differences in tenements, is true unless⁵ he claims against guardians, for if at first
[014] sight he has an action the guardian will have an exception, namely, that he [cannot
[015] claim] before he is of full age, and thus he will not answer him before his majority.
[016] But if he claims by the assise against strangers or⁶ against a chief lord who denies
[017] that he is heir, he may well sue by the assise at any time, no matter what his age.]⁷
[018] But no matter who claims against him, if his father died seised thereof as of fee, he
[019] will not answer before his full age, according to the kind of tenement it is, in a possessory
[020] action no more than in a proprietary one.⁸ In an assise account must be taken of
[021] priority and posterity, as was said above. If the chief lord, or another who has the
[022] wardship through him, enfeoffs another of the minor's land while he is under age, and
[023] the feoffee dies, leaving an heir within age, and the first heir, when he comes to full
[024] age, claims by the assise against the second, the heir of the feoffee, the assise will
[025] remain until the second heir reaches full age, according to the kind of tenement. If
[026] both are of full age and both claim against the guardian by the assise, ⁹<or by another
[027] writ ‘that he render to such a one who is of full age, as is said,’> the second heir will
[028] recover first. The first heir's assise against the guardian then falls and an assise will
[029] begin to lie de novo against the second heir, who recovered by the assise, and let him
[030] then vouch

Notes

1. Supra ii, 251; cf. infra iv, 81, 224, 312

2. Om: ‘minor . . . eadem causa possessionis’

3. Om: ‘ante plenam . . . anni,’ redundant

4. Infra iv, 312

5. ‘nisi’

6. ‘vel’

7. Supra 245

8. Supra 301, infra 303-4

9. Not in list of addiciones supra i; om: LA, MG, CM