Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 343

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Volume 2, Page 343

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[001] the inquest has found guilty in any of the aforesaid ways be arrested at once, if
[002] they are present or can be found elsewhere, and handed over to the sheriff and clapped
[003] into gaol.¹ Also let those the inquest has found [to have been] in the house or [at
[004] the gatherings] where² the dead man was slain, though they are not guilty of any
[005] wrongdoing, be attached until the coming of the justices and the names of their
[006] pledges entered on the coroners' rolls.

Of attaching the guilty.

[008] ³[Nor are they to be released on finding pledges without the special order of the
[009] lord king, an inquest having first been taken as to whether they are appealed through
[010] hate and spite or by a genuine appeal. A writ for making an inquest of this kind
[011] ought to be granted gratis, as may be seen in the charter of liberties.⁴ The inquest is
[012] not to be taken as to anyone, only as to those who are⁵ in prison.]

If [the slain man is found] in fields or woods.

[014] If the dead man is found in fields or woods let those who found him be attached,
[015] whether men or women, of whatever age, whether the dead man was slain where
[016] he was found or elsewhere. If he was not slain there, as may be ascertained by
[017] presumptions, often, if he has wounds, by the flow of blood, the traces left by the
[018] malefactors are to be promptly and immediately discovered and followed, by
[019] pursuing the tracks of a cart, the hoof-marks of horses, the footprints of men or
[020] in some other way, according as that may best and most efficiently be done.

If the slain man is known or unknown.

[022] Let inquiry also be made into whether the dead man is known or a stranger,⁶
[023] and where he lodged that night, and depending upon what is discovered let his
[024] hosts, male and female, and the entire household found in the house in which he
[025] lodged be attached [or imprisoned].⁷

If the slayer has taken to flight.

[027] If because of such slain men someone has taken to flight, as to whom there is some
[028] suspicion of guilt, let the coroners go at once to his house and carefully inquire into
[029] his chattels and the corn in his barn, even though⁸ he is a villein, and if he is a free
[030] man, how much⁹ free land he has and what it is worth, and whether there is a
[031] crop growing on it or not. And when they have made such inquiry let them cause
[032] the corn and the chattels to be appraised at a price at which they may quickly be
[033] sold, the free land at what it is worth a year, and let them hand everything over to
[034] the township to answer for the value before the justices, saving the service due to
[035] the lords

Notes

1. Infra 345

2. Reading: ‘in domo vel [in congregationibus illis] ubi,’ as Fleta, i, ca. 25

3. Belongs supra at n. 1; repeated infra 346

4. Magna Carta (1215) ca. 36; (1225) ca. 26

5. ‘fuerint,’ as 347

6. Infra 379

7. Infra 387

8. ‘etsi,’ as Fleta, i, ca. 25: ‘quamvis villanus fuerit’

9. ‘quantam’