Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 151

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Volume 2, Page 151

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[001] because of his use of the hundred, where Richard, the donor, the brother of Roger,
[002] had never withdrawn from the land to which the hundred was appurtenant. The
[003] [proper] solution, it is submitted, is this: if both use the principal thing the gift
[004] ought not to be good; thus a fortiori it ought not to be good if the donor uses the
[005] principal thing and the donee the appurtenances, since the principal is the head
[006] and the appurtenance the member and both together the body; thus both
[007] use the one body, which is the thing itself given as a whole. [But if the things
[008] were separate, neither connected with the other, and given together, as where
[009] it is said, ‘I give you such a thing and such,’ it will be otherwise; or if one gives
[010] a thing with its appurtenances saving some part to himself.]¹ For a gift does
[011] not avail the donee, nor his use of some part of the thing given, if the donor
[012] [also] uses some part, whether they use it together or in turn, in the same
[013] house or in different ones [or] in one place or several which are parts of the
[014] body or of the appurtenances of the thing given, for the donor must have
[015] the intention of transferring the whole and the donee of receiving the whole,
[016] and when both use, the donor by his use retains the whole and the donee by
[017] his acquires nothing.>² If he returns immediately, on the same day he withdrew
[018] or on the morrow, ready to claim³ hospitality out of charity, as explained briefly
[019] above,⁴ and, having been admitted, uses and enjoys as before, bearing himself as
[020] lord though by his words professing the contrary, by such actions it is apparent that
[021] he did not withdraw from seisin animo,⁵ and hence if one so admitted enfeoffs
[022] another and⁶ ejects the donee the latter will not recover by the assise.⁷ If he returns
[023] and acts in this way after a long interval, after a year or two, [or] provided
[024] there has been a fine and chirograph in the king's court, the donor being out of
[025] seisin,⁸ it will be otherwise,⁹ since that does not touch the earlier gift; it will
[026] be the equivalent of a new agreement. And the same could be said if [it is done]
[027] outside the royal court, without fine and royal chirograph, by a writing of another
[028] kind, provided it was publicly read and heard, [so that] the agreement may be
[029] proved. ¹⁰In this way a gift may be changed after an interval by the will of the parties.
[030] And that what has been said is true may be seen by an example [in the roll] of the
[031] eyre of the bishop of Durham and Martin of Pateshull in the county of York in the
[032] third year of king Henry, an assise of novel disseisin [beginning] ‘if Reyner of
[033] Halgheton,’¹¹ where it is recited that five years before his death a father gave his
[034] minor son a virgate of land, delivered seisin to him, performing every ceremony in
[035] making the gift, and then withdrew from that land to other land of his own. [But]
[036] he had his son

Notes

1. Supra 133, 150

2. Supra 125, 131, 150

3. ‘petiturus,’ all MSS; B.N.B., no. 1243 (margin): ‘De hospitio caritative petito a donatariis’; no. 1258: ‘et postea reversa petebat quod posset ibi hospitari caritative’; no. 1922 (margin)

4. Supra 132, infra 154

5. Supra 107, 132, 150, infra 153

6. ‘et,’ as infra 152, 153

7. Supra 132, infra 152, 153

8. Supra 107

9. Supra 107, 132

10. New paragraph

11. Not in B.N.B. nor in Selden Soc. vol. 56