Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 206

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Bracton Online -- English

Volume 2, Page 206

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[001] has died without an heir of her body, has shown to us and our council that, whereas
[002] there is a plea in our court etc. between the same D. and the aforesaid C. his wife on
[003] the one side and the same A. on the other, in which the same D. and C. appointed
[004] an attorney, and whereas, there being some¹ suspicion that the same C. was dead,
[005] the attorneys of the said C., were repeatedly instructed at the complaint of the
[006] same A. and of many others to allay such suspicion by producing her before the
[007] justices and showing her to be alive, they have in nowise done² so, whereupon an
[008] even stronger suspicion than before has arisen that she is dead and her death
[009] concealed to the disherison of the same A., therefore, lest falsehood be preferred to
[010] truth, we order you to go in person, taking with you four knights of your county
[011] whom you consider lawful for this purpose and the aforesaid A., to such a place where
[012] the aforesaid C. resides, as her attorneys recently acknowledged in our court, and
[013] cause her to be seen, if she still survives and is alive, by the aforesaid knights and
[014] the aforesaid A. and by others of her family whom the same A. shall bring with him.
[015] If she is alive, then in what condition you find her and according as you find her
[016] certify us or our justices at such a place on such a day, plainly, clearly, and
[017] openly, by your letters sealed with your seal and the seals of the four knights
[018] aforesaid. And have there the names of the knights and this writ. Witness etc.’

When the true heir is dead and another is fraudulently substituted by the guardian or husband.

[020] If the legitimate heir dies in the wardship of a chief lord and he substitutes another,
[021] a stranger, in his place, then, on the complaint of the true heir or of another, perhaps
[022] him to whom the inheritance belongs as an escheat, as where the true heir
[023] who is dead held of the lord king in chief, [or of another,] let this writ issue on the
[024] king's behalf.

Writ where the inheritance of the deceased heir ought to be the escheat of the lord king.

[026] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Order A. and B. his wife that rightfully etc. they
[027] render to us so much land with the appurtenances etc. which we claim as our
[028] escheat and which³ ought to revert to us as our escheat because C., the daughter
[029] and heir of D. who held of us in chief, has died without an heir, and in which the
[030] aforesaid A. and B. have no entry save this, that the aforesaid A. married the
[031] aforesaid B. and later, falsely and to our disherison

Notes

1. ‘aliqua’ for ‘aliquando’

2. ‘produxerunt’

3. ‘quam’