Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 61

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Volume 4, Page 61

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[001] hundreds, to be there to hear that record and answer thereto and receive judgment
[002] for the aforesaid hundreds. And have there the summoners, the names of the knights,
[003] and this writ. Witness etc.’ The forms of this kind [of writ] are infinite according to
[004] the diversity of pleas.

Of summonses after the plea has been transferred to the great court.

[006] When a plea begun by writ of right has, at the petition of the demandant, been transferred
[007] to the great court by pone, the tenant must be summoned to be present there to
[008] answer the demandant with respect thereto. Hence we first must see whether he is
[009] summoned. Therefore something may be said of summonses. It is clear that a summons
[010] [after which there is sometimes a taking into the hand of the lord king by default
[011] or an attachment, according as the action is real or personal, as will be explained
[012] below,]¹ is the order of the lord king or his precept that, without other summons, one
[013] appear before him to answer or to do something, or that he appear and have another
[014] to answer or to do something. There is also a precept to the sheriff, that he cause
[015] someone to come, or that he attach or have the body of someone, or to so attach [him]
[016] as to be sure of having his body, according to the varieties of summonses and attachments,
[017] as will be explained below [in the portion] on essoins, where an essoin sometimes
[018] follows, and sometimes not.² Some summonses are made in real actions, both
[019] possessory and proprietary, others in personal actions, where a person is bound, [as]
[020] in contracts, to give or do something, or in actiones iniuriarum.³ Some summonses are
[021] general, others special. A general or common summons is one that applies to some
[022] universitas, such as all the men of a county or of some city, borough, or vill, for something
[023] which touches the universitas, as the general summons which is made before the
[024] eyre of the justices and the like, which ought always to be made in a public place and
[025] may therefore neither be denied nor challenged, because what all of the county or city
[026] know or acknowledge, one or several cannot deny.⁴ The essoins which follow a general
[027] summons of this kind are called essoins of common summons, by which a man's
[028] absence is defended if he does not appear on the first day of the common summons,
[029] provided he comes on the day given him to warrant his essoin and after that does not
[030] withdraw without licence. There is also a special summons contained within the general,
[031] as where one is summoned before the justices in connexion with some particular

Notes

1. Infra 363

2. Infra 82-3,90

3. Supra ii, 290

4. D. 22.6.9.2: ‘quid enim si omnes in civitate sciant quod ille solus ignorat’; supra iii, 152