Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 157

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Volume 2, Page 157

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[001] raises a question or brings an action.] ¹[as where one has put himself into vacant
[002] seisin by intrusion after another's death, before the heir has taken up his inheritance,
[003] on his own authority, or on that of one who has no right to make a gift
[004] since he is not the true lord, [or] if a disseisor [is in seisin] after a disseisin,
[005] [or] a termor for a long time after his term has ended, [or] if one [is in] contrary
[006] to an agreement (though made between others) or to the modus of a gift [providing]
[007] that one² not give or alien, not at all or not to certain persons.³ [Or] if, to the
[008] exheredation of the true lord, one has put himself in seisin by the gift of one who
[009] has no right, or holds only for life in some way. [Or] if a younger brother has
[010] put himself into seisin on his own authority, or perhaps on that of the chief lord
[011] or of one to whom authority does not belong. Such cases are infinite. Such
[012] persons, whether they have a title or not, will never have a free tenement as against
[013] the true lord, who has the right and the property, except after long, continuous
[014] and peaceful possession, as was said above;⁴ as against their non-lord donors and
[015] others who have no right they at once begin to have a free tenement and right
[016] and begin to possess. And when there has been long, continuous and peaceful
[017] possession they begin to possess as against all, and to have a free tenement, so that
[018] they cannot be ejected without writ and judgment.] ⁵because as time is a means of
[019] extinguishing and destroying an obligation, so will it be the means of acquiring
[020] possession,⁶ [and] long possession, like a mother, gives birth to right in the possessor,⁷
[021] and takes his action from the true lord demandant, sometimes one, sometimes
[022] another, sometimes all, since every action in the world is limited to a certain time.⁸
[023] In the same way, as explained above, possession and a free tenement is acquired
[024] through time, without title and livery, by the acquiescence and negligence of the
[025] true lord,⁹ ¹⁰<It is clear that possession taken by force is to no avail,¹¹ if it is at once
[026] resisted. And this [that possession may be so acquired] is true unless it is by
[027] license, which can be revoked at any time; and so if it is of grace, for grace is a
[028] matter of will and such are revoked by a contrary will;¹² and so where it is by
[029] stealth, as where [it is enjoyed] by night or granted by bailiffs in the absence of
[030] their lords;¹³ and so if it is for an uncertain payment, changed and altered each
[031] year or each time; if for a sum certain it is otherwise.¹⁴ These rules apply only to
[032] private individuals; between the king and private persons they do not apply, for
[033] the king has no equal, no neighbour, no superior.>¹⁵

Notes

1. Follows after n. 9 infra; reading: ‘ut si quis’

2. ‘quis’

3. Supra 147; cf. 145

4. Supra 102, 127, 142, 147

5. Continued from 156, n. 5

6. Infra 288, iii, 141

7. ‘possidenti’; ‘possidendi’: CM, LA, MB, MG, OB, OC; infra iii, 15

8. Supra 126, infra 168, 288, 293, iii, 168, 186

9. The portion beginning supra n. 1 falls here

10. Supra i, 381-2; this addicio is concerned with the acquisition of incorporeal rights and belongs on 158, where much of it is repeated

11. Infra iii, 163, 165, 166-7

12. Inst. 3.29.4: ‘quae consensu contrahuntur, contraria voluntate dissolvuntur’; infra 158, iii, 13, 124, 163, 167-8, 178

13. Infra 158, iii, 163

14. Supra 123-4, infra 158

15. Supra 33, infra 305, iv, 281