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[001] to his lord as a villein; if he is in a servile status but in truth a free man possessed in
 [002] good faith, it will be otherwise.>1

Let him who raises the exception of villeinage have his proof ready.


 [004] If one raises the exception of villeinage let him produce his proof at once, or later,
 [005] depending on what the judges in their discretion permit,2 [And that he who excepts
 [006] ought to have proof by kindred if he wishes to except against those who are under
 [007] potestas is found [in the roll] of the eyre of the abbot of Reading and Martin of Pateshull
 [008] in the county of Warwick, an assise of novel disseisin [beginning] ‘if William of
 [009] Ardene,’]3 and according as the tenant proves his exception, the assise will remain or
 [010] proceed, unless both the plaintiff and the tenant4 freely or of necessity, without the
 [011] production of kindred, put themselves5 on the assise in the manner of a jury, whereupon
 [012] the matter will be determined by the jury without the production of kindred, as
 [013] [in the roll] of the last eyre of the same Martin in the county of Essex, an assise of
 [014] mortdancestor [beginning] ‘if Henry le Torneur.’6 The jury having declared whether
 [015] it is so or not, the assise will remain or proceed.7

8<Some hold freely and by free service and some by free service though not freely.>


 [017] Suppose that a villein holds by free service to himself alone, no mention made of
 [018] heirs, and when he has been ejected brings the assise, and when villeinage is excepted
 [019] against him replicates that he holds freely and claims the assise; the replication will
 [020] not avail him, since no mention was made of heirs, for in this case a free tenement does
 [021] not change his status, if he is established within the potestas of his lord,9 as in the same
 [022] eyre of the same persons in the county of Essex, an assise of novel disseisin [beginning]
 [023] ‘if Ralph of Coggeshall.’10 Suppose that no exception of villeinage is raised at the outset,
 [024] but the jurors say in their verdict that the plaintiff is free and holds freely, though
 [025] he is a villein, or that he is free and holds in villeinage,11 though he holds by free service
 [026] only to himself and not to his heirs; if afterwards, when the matter of their conviction
 [027] is being litigated, the contrary is found to be true, the jurors will remain
 [028] quasi-convicted, as in the same eyre, an assise of novel disseisin concerning Gregory
 [029] of Shelford and John Jocelyn.12 Suppose that when the exception of villeinage is
 [030] raised at the outset by the tenant, that is, the lord under whose potestas the villein is,
 [031] and to prove it in the manner of a jury villeins of the plaintiff's parentela are produced,

Notes

1. Infra 111

2. Infra 150

3. Not in B.N.B.; Selden Soc. vol. 59, no. 540; belongs infra line 9, after ‘exception’

4. ‘tenens’; infra 109

5. ‘posuerint’

6. Not in B.N.B.

7. Supra 92, 103

8. Not in list of addiciones supra i; rubric

9. Supra ii, 85

10. Not in B.N.B.

11. Om: ‘vel servus’

12. Not in B.N.B.; infra 150

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