Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 25

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Volume 4, Page 25

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[001] let action be taken against him by the little cape;¹ after he appears [let it then be done
[002] as there.] When the tenant finally appears, he can either except against the writ or
[003] against the person of the demandant, or in some other way, for many reasons, [as
[004] below more fully [in the portion] on exceptions,] [that is], when the demandant has
[005] put forward his intentio, founded it and proved it, according to some,² for it does not
[006] suffice to say that the tenant has the kind of entry he says, unless he [the demandant]
[007] can show that he is entitled to bring the action, and that the thing ought to revert to
[008] him after the term by reason of the seisin of the ancestor of whom he has made mention.
[009] But he ought not to count as in a writ of right unless the writ of entry is turned
[010] into a writ of right, for it suffices whether he says ‘I claim so much land as my possessory
[011] right’ (if he holds for life) or ‘as my inheritance’ (if he holds in fee) ‘in which he
[012] has no entry except through such a one etc.,’ because whether he who gives for a term
[013] holds only for life in some way or in fee,³ this narratio serves only for [recovering]
[014] seisin in a possessory proceeding. And if he mentions use and esplees and ‘in his demesne
[015] as offee,’ he could be answered as in a writ of right, and the tenant could defend
[016] himself by the duel or the grand assise, which has no place in this writ. The tenant
[017] may also deny the demandant's right and his entry through such a one, and say that
[018] he does not have his entry through him of whom the writ speaks, but through another,
[019] such a one, and as to that put himself on an inquest. Then let this writ for inquiring
[020] into the truth issue, unless the demandant⁴ acknowledges it to be so without
[021] an inquest. The form of the writ, if an inquest ought to be held in the county, will be
[022] this:

If the tenant answers that his entry is not through the man named in the writ but another.

[024] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. We order you to cause to come before you and the
[025] keepers of the pleas of our crown in your full county court twelve, knights as well as
[026] other free, lawful and discreet men of such a neighborhood by whom the truth of the
[027] matter may best be ascertained, who are bound to A. of N. by no bond of affinity,
[028] and who are in no way excusable, to recognize on their oath if the aforesaid A. had any
[029] right or entry in so much land with its appurtenances in such a vill other than through
[030] B. the brother of C., whose heir C. is, who demised that land to him for a term which
[031] has passed, or if he entered through D. who gave him that land in fee, as the same A.
[032] says, because both the aforesaid A. and the aforesaid C.

Notes

1. Infra 165

2. Infra 26

3. ‘si ille qui dederit ad terminum tenuerit . . . vel in feodo,’ from lines 14-16

4. ‘petens’