Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 184

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 2, Page 184

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] a tenant and has not paid his rent to his lord, when he holds for his life or in fee,
[002] a different procedure must be followed, distress must be levied. ¹If the hirer dies
[003] during the term of his hire, his heir succeeds to his right in the lease,² unless the
[004] hirer, during his life or at his death, has ordered another disposition to be made.
[005] ³If the term ends within the hirer's lifetime, the lessor may enter into the thing
[006] leased on his own authority,⁴ if he finds it unoccupied and free of incumbrance.

Of the use of clothing.

[008] ⁵One who gives or promises money for the use of clothes, gold or silver or other
[009] ornaments, or of a beast of burden, is required to show the standard of care that
[010] a most conscientious householder shows in his own affairs. If he has shown this and
[011] yet by some mischance has lost the thing, he will be under no obligation to restore
[012] it.⁶ It is not enough to show [merely] such diligence as one would show in his own
[013] affairs unless he shows the standard of care described above.

Of acquiring the dominion of things by succession and how heirs succeed ancestors.

[015] There is another causa for acquiring dominion called succession, which entitles
[016] every heir to everything of which his ancestors die⁷ seised as of fee, or of which
[017] they once were seised as of fee and hereditary right, which ought to descend to
[018] nearer heirs, male and female, in the right or transverse line, for the right descends,
[019] like a weight falling downwards, in the right or transverse line and never re-ascends⁸
[020] by the same path by which it descends on the death of ancestors. It sometimes,
[021] however, ascends collaterally because of the failure of heirs below. And if seisin
[022] or possession sometimes turns aside so that it does not follow the mere right, in
[023] the end it will revert to the proprietas,⁹ if there is an heir who claims. Right descends
[024] to the true heir no matter where he is born, [and though he is not yet born,] on
[025] this side of the sea or beyond it. Nor can anyone make himself heir, for only God
[026] can make an heir.¹⁰ Since an heir is called such from inheritance and not conversely,¹¹
[027] we must first consider what inheritance is, then who may be a lawful
[028] heir, and who among several such shall be preferred.

[What inheritance is].

[030] It is clear that inheritance is succession to the entire right the deceased had,¹² no
[031] matter by what causa, acquisition or succession, with seisin or without it: with
[032] seisin, as where¹³ he was seised at some time, during his lifetime or at his death,
[033] that is, on the day he died; [without seisin], as where the right descends to several
[034] heirs successively without seisin; the heir is entitled to the same seisin

Notes

1-2. Inst. 3.24.6

3-4. Glanvill, x, 18

5-6. Inst. 3.24.5

7. ‘obierint’

8. Glanvill, vii, 1; ‘hereditas naturaliter quidem ad heredes hereditabiliter descendit, numquam autem regulariter ascendit.’; infra 188, iv, 174, 175

9. Supra 24, 106, infra iii, 271; B.N.B., no. 422 (margin)

10. Glanvill, vii, 1: ‘quia solus deus heredem facere potest, non homo’

11. Infra iii, 278

12. D. 50.16.24: ‘Nihil est aliud ‘hereditas’ quam successio in universum ius quod defunctus habuit.’; 50.17.62

13. ‘cum seisina, ut si’