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[001] of our crown in your full county court twelve lawful and discreet men of such a
[002] neighbourhood, knights as well as other free men, through whom the truth may
[003] the better be known and the matter expedited.’ Or in another form: ‘We order
[004] you to cause to come before us or our justices at Westminster on such a day,
[005] twelve etc. to recognize on oath whether A, on the day he is said to have given B.
[006] so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill, was or was not of sufficient
[007] competence to travel from place to place and sufficiently of sound mind and good
[008] memory to make and consent to a gift or not,1 (or in another way, ‘whether A. on
[009] such a day etc. was of sound mind and good memory though confined by illness, and
[010] whether the aforesaid B., the donee, had seisin of the same land by that gift in the
[011] lifetime of A., the donor, that is, for so long a time before the death of the said A.,
[012] or not,’ or ‘was not [sufficiently] of sound mind [etc.],’ the converse being repeated
[013] throughout) in as much as C., son and heir of the said A. says that when that gift
[014] was said to have been made the same A. was not of good memory nor [sufficiently]
[015] competent to travel from place to place. And the inquest etc.’ Another form of
[016] inquest on the same matter, that is, ‘whether on the day he gave that land to B. by
[017] his charter he was of good memory, and whether he made that gift or not, and
[018] whether he was sufficiently competent after the gift, if any gift was there made,
[019] to travel from place to place though struck by paralysis [or] whether, though not
[020] of sound mind at the inception of the gift, he later ratified it, when restored to
[021] sanity.’ [And note that if a paralytic travels from place to place, [that] he has
[022] discretion and does everything properly is presumed, but the same is not understood
[023] of others, for they may be of good memory despite the fact that they cannot travel.]
[024] You will find more on this matter [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in the fifteenth and
[025] beginning of the sixteenth years of king Henry in the county of Berkshire, [the
[026] case] of Robert de Burnby.2 If when one is of sound mind but enfeebled another
[027] steals his seal and makes a charter of his lands without his consent and agreement
[028] to the disinheritance of his heir, at the instance and petition of the heir let knights
[029] be sent by order of the lord king to the enfeebled person that his acknowledgment
[030] may be heard, that is, whether the gifts and charters were made of his own free will
[031] and consent or not.3 If he disavows the gifts and charters, then let him who committed
[032] the fraud be summoned to answer concerning that fraud by this writ.4 5<The writ
[033] which comes before it, for



Notes

1. Infra iv, 236

2. B.N.B., no. 635; no roll extant: ‘ad recognoscendum si predictus Thurstanus die quo terram illam dedit predicto Willelmo per cartam suam fuit bone memorie et potens sui et si donum illud ei fecit vel non et si post donum illud, si aliquod ibi fuit, fuit itinerans de loco in locum et ratum habuit donum’

3. Infra iv, 236

4. The second writ on 61

5. Supra i, 374


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