Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 196

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Volume 2, Page 196

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[001] in another sense, ‘to come.’ Those who are below in the right or transverse line
[002] may be called blood-relations and heirs; those who are above in the transverse line
[003] may properly be called parents and heirs, in the absence of those below, and in
[004] another way, though improperly, blood-relations and heirs, since they succeed
[005] to ancestors because of the failure of those below. The upward relationship of
[006] parents or ancestors who are dead is in the right line ascending and begins from
[007] the first degree, that is, from the father or mother by rising¹ to the grandfather;
[008] from the second degree, that is, from the grandfather, to the greatgrandfather;
[009] from the third degree, that is, from the greatgrandfather to the great-greatgrandfather;
[010] from the fourth degree, that is, from the great-greatgrandfather to his
[011] father; and so from the fifth degree, that is, from the great-greatgrandfather's
[012] father to his father, who in the computation thus stands in the sixth degree. No
[013] computation of relationship rising to a higher degree is made, for such would exceed
[014] the memories of men. And following the same course, from the great-great-great-greatgrandfather
[015] computed for the father or the great-great-great-greatgrandmother
[016] for the mother, the descent of the right may be computed to the great-great-great-greatgrandchild.
[017] The downward relationship of children and heirs is
[018] in the right line descending, and the computation must be made from the first
[019] degree, that is, from the father and mother, down to the great-great-great-greatgrandchild,
[020] as from the father or mother [to the son or daughter; from them] to
[021] the grandson or granddaughter; from them to the greatgrandson or greatgranddaughter;
[022] and thus step by step to the great-great-great-greatgrandchild, or further
[023] if there is need. As long as any heir survives in the right line descending no one
[024] ought to be called to the succession in a transverse line, above or below, a male or a
[025] female, but all such in the parentela failing the proprietary right of necessity reverts
[026] to those who are in a descending² transverse line, [The computation of the parentela
[027] must be begun from³ the first degree, as from their common origin,⁴ [and go] through
[028] all the degrees and heirs to whom the proprietary right descended,⁵ who had both
[029] rights, possession and property, [and] through all the degrees and those persons to
[030] whom seisin would have gone had they claimed in their lifetimes, or survived to a
[031] time at which they could have been heirs,⁶ ⁷<that is, where something descends to
[032] children,⁸ their ancestors being dead.>⁹] ¹⁰that is, to the brother or sister [of the
[033] father or mother,]¹¹ and thus

Notes

1. ‘ascendendo.’

2. ‘descendente,’ as 197, line 25

3. ‘a’

4. ‘sicut a communi stipite eorum,’ from line 26

5. ‘descendidit’

6. Infra 197, 198

7. Supra i, 382

8. ‘ad liberos’ or ‘ad suos heredes,’ as 197, for ‘ad eos’

9. Infra 198

10. Om: ‘Et in ... transversali,’ a connective

11. Infra iv, 173. Glanvill (vii, 4) regards the eldest son's brother or sister as being in a transverse line, as in the arbor in Britton (ii, 321). The Institutes is in accord: supra 195 n.; and so Br. infra 197, line 6; a non-Bractonian addition?