Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 278

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 2, Page 278

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] to have the third presentation. But that depends upon how she is endowed and how
[002] her dower was initially constituted. If she was endowed of a third part and there
[003] is but one manor and one advowson, or even if there are several manors and several
[004] advowsons, the wife may make no claim to the advowsons by reason of her third
[005] part, unless when her dower was constituted [or at the assignment] it was specially
[006] agreed that she ought to have something thereof.¹ The reason is this: suppose one
[007] has an entire manor with the advowson of a church and gives a third part of it or
[008] half or a very small part to one person, then another part to a second person, and
[009] so successively to several until he has but an acre or a very small part left; although
[010] each part, great or small, is given with all its appurtenances, so long as he retains
[011] some portion the donor will always retain the advowson² completely, unless it is
[012] specifically transferred with some parcel.³ [This will be true] whether the gifts are
[013] made⁴ at one and the same time and on one day or successively, and whether to
[014] one person or to several. Hence when an unspecified third part is constituted and
[015] assigned to the wife in the name of dower, no mention made of the advowson, no
[016] part of it may be transferred with the third part assigned as dower. Thus the wife
[017] cannot claim any part of the advowson by virtue of that constitution of dower,
[018] unless another arrangement was specially made at the constitution [or the assignment,]
[019] namely, that the whole advowson be transferred with the portion assigned.
[020] But if she was endowed of some entire manor to which an advowson is appurtenant,
[021] with all its appurtenances and without any reservation or exception, the advowson
[022] passes with the whole and the thing itself, since it was not specially reserved or
[023] excepted.⁵ And so if for her third part a manor with the appurtenances has been
[024] assigned her. [Suppose one says in his gift, ‘I give to such a one such a manor with
[025] all its appurtenances,’ it appears by this that he transfers everything to the donee,
[026] including the advowson if there is one. If he later says, ‘excepting so much land to
[027] my use,’ since he first transfers the whole and from it subtracts a certain part, it
[028] seems that the advowson does not revert to him with the part excepted but that it
[029] ought to remain to the donee, which is true. But if he says, ‘I give such a one
[030] such a manor with all its appurtenances (no mention made of the advowson) and
[031] then says ‘reserving to myself so much land’ or ‘except so much land which I retain,’
[032] the advowson will remain to the donor with the portion retained. And so if the
[033] words are ‘saving to myself so much land.’]⁶ When a wife is endowed, as aforesaid,
[034] of a third part with the advowson, specifically and expressly, or of an entire manor
[035] with express mention of the advowson,

Notes

1. Infra iii, 221

2. ‘advocationem,’ all MSS.

3. Supra 165, infra iii, 222

4. ‘donationes facti fuerint’

5. Supra 105, 106

6. Supra 105, 165