Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 86

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Volume 2, Page 86

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[001] if he pretends that at the time of the agreement he did not know he was a villein,
[002] for he knew or ought to know the status of him with whom he agreed,¹ whether
[003] bond or free, his own villein or another's, within his potestas or beyond it. ²Suppose
[004] that a gift is made to a bondsman by a lord, as said above, [not] for homage and
[005] service, [nor] with manumission, [nor] without it [and] by what amounts to it, and
[006] the lord gives [the thing] to another: quaere whether he may eject and disseise him
[007] since it is not his act or feoffment. In truth he cannot, no more than can he who
[008] made the gift, for since he succeeds to his place he can claim no greater right than
[009] could he whom he succeeds, and [also] he is a stranger to such feoffees and an exception
[010] of villeinage is therefore not rightfully available to him.³ If one says that it is,
[011] a replication [founded upon] his feoffor's act will bar him.

If a gift is made to a bondsman within the potestas of his lord.

[013] If a gift is made to another's villein, within the potestas of his lord, it is good and
[014] binding as long as the lord, within whose potestas he is, permits him to have it.⁴
[015] Hence, if he is disseised by his feoffor, or by another to whom he does not belong,
[016] restitution is his by the assise:⁵ against his feoffor because of his act,⁶ and against
[017] those to whom he does not belong [because] the exception of villeinage is not rightfully
[018] available to them.⁷ ⁸<And what if his lord, within whose potestas he is, ejects
[019] his villein, who alleges that he is free and, though a villein, asserts his liberty? Here
[020] there will be an examination of the villein's parentela, produced both by the lord and
[021] the villein.⁹ But if he is beyond the lord's potestas it will be otherwise, for then he shall
[022] not answer an exception directed to his status (unless he wishes to do so of his own
[023] free will) until he has been restored by an assise of novel disseisin, [that is], let him
[024] first have his estate and then let the lord proceed to the question of status.>¹⁰ For a
[025] person may be the bondsman of one and the free man of another respectively,
[026] although it is said that everyone is either free or bond, never partly free and partly
[027] bond.¹¹ And not only does the assise of novel disseisin lie for a villein so enfeoffed
[028] against the persons aforesaid, but it lies for his heirs, once they are in possession
[029] after his death, as does the assise of mortdancestor before they obtain seisin,
[030] against everyone except against the true lord in whose potestas they are,

Notes

1. D. 50.17.19: ‘Qui cum alio contrahit vel est vel debet esse non ignarus condicionis eius’

2. ‘Belongs supra 85 at n. 7

3. Infra 89, iii, 87, 88

4. Infra iii, 101

5. Infra iii, 100, 101

6. Infra iii, 88, 89, 92

7. Infra 89, iii, 88, 89, 92, 100

8. Supra i, 376

9. Infra 89, iii, 88

10. Infra 89, iii, 86-7

11. Supra 29-30, infra iii, 100, 101