[001] sending four knights to an enfeebled man to hear his statement, will be this.>
Writ of the same kind: whether he is compos mentis.
[003] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Send four lawful knights of your county to A. at [004] N. who is ill, as it is said, to see in what condition he is and whether he is competent [005] or not and to inquire of him whether he has given lands during his illness, [006] and to whom, and make that inquest known to us or our justices on such a day [007] under your seal etc.’ When it is established by the inquest that he of whom [008] complaint is made has committed a fraud, let him be summoned to answer by this [009] writ.
Writ to summon the tenant.
[011] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. [Though] we well recall that at the instance of [012] A. the heir of B. we sent you and four knights to the aforesaid B. to see his condition [013] and whether he was competent or not, and also to hear whether he had [014] granted lands during his sickness and incompetence, and to whom, and you [015] together with the aforesaid knights wrote to us that you had found him ill and [016] incompetent and that before you and the aforesaid knights and many others [017] then and there present he stated that he had never given any lands to such a [018] one of N. nor made him any charter of gift, since the aforesaid A., heir of the same B. [019] still complains to us that the aforesaid person, such a one, who for a long time had [020] the seal of B. his father (or ‘had stolen it during the infirmity and incompetence [021] of the same B. as it is said’) has put himself into the land of the said B. at such [022] a place, by himself and on his own authority, without the same B. or his bailiff, [023] and made himself charters of the aforesaid lands [with] the aforesaid seal, which [024] he has in his possession, to the disherison of the same A., and because no one ought [025] to benefit from his own fraud nor do we wish1 to maintain, as we ought not, that [026] anyone be wrongfully disinherited, we order you, if the aforesaid A. makes you secure [027] etc., to summon by good summoners such a one that he be etc. to show by what [028] warrant he put himself into the aforesaid lands. Also summon by good summoners [029] etc. twelve, knights as well as others etc., to recognize etc. whether the aforesaid B. [030] gave2 that land to him and made him his charter thereof or not, and if he gave [031] him those lands and made him his charter in what condition he then was, that is, [032] whether compos mentis and of good memory when he made that gift or not, and [033] also by whom the aforesaid person was put into seisin. And have there etc.’
Volume 2, Page 61
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