Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 130

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Volume 4, Page 130

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[001] sufficient testimony, as aforesaid, [He is not to be conducted further by anyone,
[002] neither to the county court nor to a castle nor elsewhere, but released at once to go
[003] freely wherever he likes.]¹ let him be summoned at once, on the demandant's complaint,
[004] to come to the court where the plea formerly was, to hear his judgment on
[005] his default, why he rose after ‘languor’ had been awarded him, by this writ.² And
[006] finally note that after one has been essoined of bed-sickness, after he has [once]
[007] appeared in court so that he cannot deny the essoin,³ he cannot with impunity,
[008] without being in default,⁴ rise without a view lawfully made, that is, by persons
[009] who may make the view, as above,⁵ or without licence. Generally he may have
[010] licence, whether he has been viewed or not, and whether ‘languor’ has been
[011] awarded him or not, until the view has been lawfully attested, so that the demandant
[012] has received a day at the Tower of London.⁶ Thenceforth no licence to
[013] rise may be given, because the justices have no jurisdiction, nor may the plea again
[014] return to the court except through the office of the constable.⁷ It sometimes happens
[015] that a man who has risen from ‘languor’ is not found, in the place in which he
[016] essoined himself or outside it, so that he may be arrested; then on the complaint of
[017] the demandant, let a writ be sent to the sheriff ordering him to go in his own person,
[018] taking with him the four knights who viewed him, or some of them, to the place in
[019] which the aforesaid essoinee ought to lie [and see] if he is there⁸ in his ‘languor,’ as
[020] it was awarded him or not. And according as they find him or not [etc.]. Let the
[021] writ to the sheriff be drawn in this form.

Writ if an essoinee rises without licence, that knights be sent to him to see if he has so risen or not after ‘languor’ adjudged him.

[023] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. It has been shown us on the part of A. that though
[024] B. in our court at Westminster (or ‘before the justices itinerant’ or ‘in such a county
[025] court’) essoined himself of bed-sickness against such a one with respect to a plea of
[026] land at such a place in such a county, and languor was there adjudged him by the
[027] four knights sent to view him by our order, the same B. rose within his languor,
[028] against the custom of our realm, and left his house in which he ought to have lain
[029] languid and withdrew from those parts and betook himself elsewhere (or ‘to
[030] another

Notes

1. Om: ‘qui . . . vel alibi,’ a connective

2. Infra 131, n. 1

3. Supra 116, 124, infra 148

4. ‘non’

5. Supra 120

6. Supra 121

7. Supra 127

8. ‘ibi sit,’ as 131