Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 102

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Volume 3, Page 102

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[001] his villeinage he will not recover, because he held in the name of another. A villein,
[002] though once established within the potestas of his lord, may be rendered a fugitive
[003] through his lord's carelessness or negligence; if he has recently fled and been recently
[004] pursued he may be brought back without wrong to anyone, as explained in the title
[005] ‘of fugitive villeins,’¹ but if, through his lord's negligence, he continues a fugitive for
[006] so long a time that he cannot be recalled without writ, nor be compelled to answer as
[007] to his status without writ, he then begins to be in a free status. [For he is a statuliber
[008] who has a standing to appear in court as though he were free, though he is not. It is
[009] called ‘status’ from sto, stas (to stand). He is a statuliber since he is not compelled to
[010] answer respecting his status without writ. And as a bondsman may be a statuliber,
[011] conversely, and for the same reason, a free man may be a statuservus, as above [in the
[012] portion] on the status of men.]² When one so established outside potestas and in a free
[013] status acquires a free tenement and is disseised thereof without judgment, it does not
[014] much matter who has disseised him, whether his own lord-feoffor, of the thing of
[015] which he has enfeoffed him or of which another has enfeoffed him, or a non-lord feoffor,
[016] or a complete stranger who has no interest in the thing, because he will recover against
[017] all indifferently, because he is wrongfully disseised and has a standing in court against
[018] all until his status is changed, as where³ his lord recovers him by judgment, by a writ
[019] de nativis. He will always have an exception based on his status until his body, the
[020] principal matter, has been deraigned, with his sequela and chattels which follow the
[021] body.⁴ And since he has a standing in court as a statuliber and will recover against his
[022] own lord, whose villein he in truth is,⁵ despite the exception of villeinage, until such
[023] time as his body has been recovered, a fortiori he will have such standing against a
[024] stranger whose villein he is not, despite that exception, whether the stranger is his
[025] feoffor or not. And since they have no right in his person, a fortiori they have none in
[026] his sequela or property. When, therefore, being in a free status and beyond the potestas
[027] of his lord, he makes an acquisition, no matter from whom, an owner or a non-owner,
[028] and his lord disseises him, and the statuliber brings the assise in the absence of the
[029] lord, [whether he is present or absent, provided that nothing is excepted against the
[030] assise on the grounds of status,]⁶ and the jurors say that he is completely free, saying
[031] nothing of the fact that he is a statuliber, or completely bond though he is outside
[032] potestas, they are to be convicted, [unless at the conviction the answer is made [that
[033] an exception was raised] against the assise as though the lord were present, diligent
[034] examination being made,]⁷ and so a fortiori if [they say that] he is a villein within the
[035] potestas of his lord.⁸ But if he is present and in a free status, and when he claims by the
[036] assise villeinage is objected against him by the lord-disseisor and

Notes

1. Supra ii, 36, 84, iii, 84, 86

2. Supra ii, 38, iii, 93

3. ‘ut si’

4. Supra 86, 87

5. Supra 98-9

6. ‘sive dominus . . . absens, ita quod . . . de statu’

7. ‘facta diligenti examinatione’

8. Infra 150