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[001] his age,1 if it is rightful, though it gives birth2 to an assise3 of novel disseisin, because
[002] possession is joined with the right,4 [That is why, if an heir [found in seisin] after the
[003] death of his ancestor is at once ejected, he will have both, as he chooses, because they
[004] are compatible with one another and neither excludes the other for seisin recently
[005] lost, provided the order is observed.]5 but if it is wrongful it does not,6 because it does
[006] not give the heir a free tenement since it cannot be joined with the right, nor is the
[007] conjunction valid since the seisin may be revoked, nor is the joining valid unless it is
[008] rightful. Therefore when an heir wrongfully usurps his ancestor's seisin by disseisin,
[009] such seisin will be void, because it does not give the heir a free tenement, and therefore
[010] it does not bar the assise of mortdancestor, because it is taken as null. If when
[011] his seisin is rightful the heir makes a gift while under age, the gift will be invalid,
[012] since it may be revoked by the heir. For that reason, though it cannot be revoked by
[013] an assise of novel disseisin because of his own act, of some kind and of some value,
[014] the assise of mortdancestor for recovering the seisin he had earlier is not barred.
[015] When an heir of full age, in rightful seisin which cannot be revoked, makes a gift,
[016] the gift is good and the assise [of mortdancestor] barred. If he is ejected wrongfully,
[017] he will have the assise of novel disseisin; the assise of mortdancestor is barred because
[018] of rightful seisin had earlier. If it is wrongful, as said above, it does not bar the assise
[019] of mortdancestor, since it is void, as above. If he could have the assise of mortdancestor
[020] when it is rightful and gifts are made under proper circumstances, the heir
[021] could revoke all his properly made gifts by the assise, which ought not to be.7 This
[022] is the reason why [rightful] seisin had earlier bars an assise of mortdancestor, not
[023] the other.] The assise also falls by an exception of villeinage, as where a villein within
[024] the potestas of his lord buys land with his own money to hold freely and dies so
[025] seised; if his lord, within whose potestas he dies, puts himself in seisin after his death,
[026] the villein's son will not recover against his lord by the assise of mortdancestor, once
[027] it is recognized that his father died a villein and within the potestas of his lord,8 as
[028] [in the roll] of the last eyre of Martin of Pateshull in the county of Suffolk, an assise of
[029] mortdancestor [beginning] ‘if William de Carletone,9 because where there is no assise
[030] of novel disseisin for the ancestor, there will be no assise of mortdancestor for the
[031] heir, but conversely.10 11<But it will be otherwise if he is beyond



Notes

1. Supra 245: if of full age

2. ‘pariat’

3. ‘assisam’

4. Supra ii, 123, 124, 134, 185

5. Supra 245

6. Om: ‘tollit assisam’

7. Supra 298

8. Supra ii, 87, iii, 293

9. Not in B.N.B.; infra 308

10. Supra 89, 292-3

11. Supra i, 405


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