Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 54

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Volume 2, Page 54

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[001] when he has recovered by the assise against B., the farmer, by virtue of equity and
[002] the judge acting ex officio,¹ the donor will be bound, because of his fraud, to provide
[003] B., the farmer, with escambium.² [There is more on this subject below [in the
[004] portion] if a gift is made to two persons by the same person at different times.]³
[005] Gifts made between husband and wife are invalid,⁴ for during marriage a husband
[006] may not give to his wife nor conversely, since such gifts are prohibited between
[007] such persons; nor may they work a fraud against the constitution [of dower],⁵ as
[008] where a husband makes a gift to a stranger with the intent that he transfer it to
[009] the wife during the husband's lifetime or after his death.⁶ And what is said of the
[010] husband applies equally to the wife. But if made before espousals or marriage [or
[011] after divorce,] they are valid, provided they are not made in contemplation of
[012] marriage.⁷ If made before marriage, according to some⁸

To whom a gift may be made.

[014] We have explained in the preceding portion who may give and who may not.
[015] Now we must show to whom a gift may be made. It is clear that it may be made
[016] not only to a free man but to a bondsman, whether by [the bondsman's own] lord
[017] or by another, as will be explained below,⁹ to a woman or to a man, a wife as well
[018] as a husband, to them together or separately to each. Also to a minor as well as to
[019] one of full age, provided he has the authority of his tutor.¹⁰ [One may not, however,
[020] be both the minor's feoffor and his tutor, for since he is the donor he may not
[021] give to himself [as] tutor, because he would then be taken to continue his own
[022] seisin,¹¹ even though he turns all the fruits and issues of the thing given to the
[023] use and profit of the minor.¹² For in every gift it is requisite that the donor remove
[024] himself from seisin animo and corpore: corpore, his own as well as another's, and
[025] that the donee put himself into seisin animo and corpore: corpore, his own or
[026] another's.]¹³ And to a bastard as well as to one who is legitimate, to him and his
[027] heirs and assigns.¹⁴ Also not only to one but to several, to all together and at the
[028] same time or successively, by the modus of the gift, as will be explained below.¹⁵
[029] [And to those to be born as well as those born,¹⁶ for] one may make a gift to his
[030] concubine or another's,¹⁷ ‘to the concubine and her children, of her¹⁸ born and to
[031] be born, and their heirs or assigns.’¹⁹ Since all were enfeoffed together and hold in
[032] common, the children do not succeed one the other,²⁰ and if one of them dies without
[033] heirs his portion will accrue by the jus accrescendi to the survivors and their heirs,
[034] from several such to one,²¹ and will not revert to the donor as long as one survivor

Notes

1. ‘iudicis,’ infra 282

2. Infra 92, 127

3. Infra 138

4. Infra 97ff.

5. Infra 98, 105

6. Infra 98

7. Ibid.

8. Deleted

9. Infra 84 ff.

10. Supra 51, infra 94

11. Infra 94, 152

12. Infra 150

13. Infra 124, 130, 225

14. Infra 75

15. Infra 70, 94

16. Infra 95

17. ‘alienae’

18. ‘ab ea’

19. Infra 96, iii, 271

20. Infra 76, 94-5, iii, 271, 272

21. Infra iii, 272