Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 183

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Volume 3, Page 183

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[001] puts in more beasts than is permitted, sometimes more than is expedient. If more
[002] than is permitted, as where he is granted common for a certain number of beasts, or
[003] for beasts of a certain kind, or as many as is proper for so large a tenement in that
[004] same vill, and he puts in more, or those of a different kind, against the will of him
[005] whose estate it is, and the other cannot at once resist, his choice of two remedies is
[006] available to him; novel disseisin for the portion by which he who has the common
[007] exceeds the due number or kind, since he thus appropriates the lord's tenement
[008] against his will, as though he had no common at all and had attempted to put in his
[009] beasts by force against the will of the lord, and also another remedy, that by another
[010] writ the excess be reduced to proper number and due measure.¹ For admeasurement,
[011] according to the innate significance of the word, means simply ‘to the measure,’ the
[012] word ‘reduction’ being understood. Others, those who only have common in that
[013] land, have no remedy other than admeasurement.² If he has more beasts than is
[014] expedient, admeasurement lies, as where one is granted common for beasts of all
[015] kinds, without limit of number, and similar grants are made to others successively,
[016] (either for a certain number or without limit) and one puts in so many that the
[017] pasture does not suffice for all; a remedy lies by which what is in excess and is harmful
[018] is reduced to proper measure, by this writ directed to the sheriff.

Writ as to why one has surcharged, to the sheriff for execution.

[020] ³ ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Such a one [A.] has complained to us that such a
[021] one [B.] has wrongfully overburdened his common pasture in such a vill, having in it
[022] more animals and beasts than he ought to have and than it is proper for him to have.
[023] Therefore we order you rightfully and without delay to cause that pasture to be
[024] so admeasured that the aforesaid [B.] has no more animals and beasts there than he
[025] ought to and is entitled to have, according to the free tenement he has in that same
[026] vill, and that the aforesaid [A.] have there as many animals and beasts as he ought
[027] to and is entitled to have. Lest we hear further etc.’

The duty of the sheriff in the writ of admeasurement.

[029] The duty of the sheriff is this: having received the writ, let him go in his own person
[030] to the place in which the common is claimed and there cause the hundred to be assembled
[031] and all those whom the admeasurement touches. Then in the presence of
[032] both

Notes

1. The addicio 182, n. 12, belongs here

2. Cf. infra 184

3. Cf. Glanvill xii, 13