Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 58

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Volume 3, Page 58

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[001] to desist from the prosecution of his right. But it is safer, according to others, for
[002] each of them to find two pledges if he can. It is the sheriff's duty to cause the tenement
[003] to be reseised of the chattels etc., which today is otherwise observed, because the
[004] plaintiff will recover all in damages after the taking of the assise, as declared by the
[005] oath of the recognitors, as will be explained below.¹ Also that he cause it to be in
[006] peace, [that is, that he not permit the disseisor to transfer the thing seized to another,
[007] or the plaintiff to usurp seisin to himself without judgment,] until the first session
[008] of the justices. [Hence if one enters in some way, either by disseisin or some causa of
[009] acquisition, into a thing thus made litigious by impetration, he will restore it to the
[010] true lord without writ, without having recourse against his feoffor unless he has
[011] provided for himself by a writ of warrantia cartae while in seisin.]² Also that it
[012] remain in the same state, that the injuria be not made greater, nor the thing diminished
[013] or wasted, though it may be improved.³ Also that crops not yet ripe not be
[014] removed, though he who is in possession may take those that are ripe, the other, if he
[015] prevails, recovering their value in damages. It is also the sheriff's duty to choose and
[016] convene (in the presence of the parties if they wish to be present) twelve free and lawful
[017] men of the neighbourhood, ⁴[or seven at least, for by fewer an assise cannot be
[018] taken, though it may be by more than twelve, if there is some proper reason,]⁵
[019] that they may make the recognition when the justices arrive, and let him send them
[020] at once to view that tenement and cause their names to be written down. The view
[021] must be made not only by one or two, but by all the jurors, in order that a thing
[022] certain may be brought before the court, that the jurors may swear a true and
[023] accurate oath, and the justice give a correspondingly just judgment.⁶ They must see
[024] what sort of tenement it is, what and how large; of what kind, whether land or rent,
[025] whether the thing is sacred or profane.⁷ Also whether private or common, as below.
[026] Also how much the plaintiff puts in his view: ⁸<because if the plaintiff puts more in
[027] his view than that of which he has been disseised he will be amerced for his excessive
[028] demand, as in the eyre of the abbot of Reading and Martin of Pateshull in the fifth
[029] year of king Henry in the county of Warwick, an assise of novel disseisin [beginning]
[030] ‘if Walter of Arden,’⁹ but not if he puts in less. And let the same be observed in the
[031] case of mortdancestor.> ¹⁰<If the county cannot be established the assise will fall¹¹
[032] into a perambulation,

Notes

1. Infra 75

2. Supra 23, 41, 48, 49, 53

3. Infra 77

4-5. ‘vel septem . . . justa causa,’ from lines 21-23; infra 71, 254

6. Infra 75

7. ‘prophana,’ infra 60

8. Supra i, 154-7 (full collation), 394

9. ‘si Walterus de Arderne’: Selden Soc. vol. 59. no. 412, pp. xxii-xxiii

10. Belongs infra 59, n. 6.

11. ‘cadet’