Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 202

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Volume 3, Page 202

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[001] ¹ If one has been disseised of his [free] tenement, or of something appurtenant to it,
[002] and has recovered his seisin before justices itinerant by an assise (no matter of what
[003] kind) or by the admission of those who committed the disseisin, if the disseisee has
[004] his seisin through the sheriff and the same² disseisors again disseise him, after the eyre
[005] or within it, and are convicted thereof, let them be taken at once and kept in the
[006] prison of the lord king until released by the lord king [after payment of a fine]³ or
[007] in some other way.⁴ And let a writ issue directed to the sheriff and containing a
[008] statement of the disseisin committed on the disseisin, as follows. ⁵‘The king to the
[009] sheriff, greeting. Such a one has shown us that though in our court etc. at such a place
[010] he recovered his seisin of so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill against
[011] such a one, by the recognition of an assise of novel disseisin there taken between them,
[012] the said disseisor has again wrongfully disseised him of the same land contrary to the
[013] judgment given in our court. Therefore we order you to proceed to that land in your
[014] own person, taking with you the keepers of the pleas of our crown and twelve persons,
[015] knights as well as other free, lawful and discreet men, taken from among those
[016] who were in the first assise or jury and others, and by their oath make diligent enquiry
[017] thereof. And if you find that the said disseisee was again wrongfully disseised
[018] by the said disseisor, then take him and keep him safely in our prison until we order
[019] you otherwise and cause the disseisee to again have his seisin. Witness etc.’⁶ He who
[020] has been so convicted offends doubly against the king, because he commits a disseisin
[021] and robbery against his peace, and also because with rash audacity he renders
[022] ineffectual matters properly done in the lord king's court; because of the double
[023] delict he ought properly to incur a double punishment. And let the same be done
[024] as to those who eject others from seisin, no matter how or from what thing, who have
[025] recovered their seisin in the court of the lord king by an assise, a recognition [or] a
[026] jury, a judgment, concord or in any other way.⁷

Another form of writ on the same matter.

[028] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Such a one, the parson of such a church, has shown
[029] us that though an assise was summoned before our justices last itinerant in your
[030] county to recognize whether so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill was
[031] free alms belonging to the church of the said parson of such a vill or the lay fee of
[032] such a one, and the same parson recovered seisin of the aforesaid land because the
[033] other acknowledged that the aforesaid land was the right of the aforesaid church
[034] of the same parson (or [that was found] by recognition of the assise

Notes

1-4. Cal. Cl. Rolls, 1234-37, 338 (1236); Statute of Merton, ca. 3: Statutes of the Realm, i, 2; Selden Soc. vol. 87, pp. xv, ciii

2. ‘iidem,’ as roll

3. ‘per nos pro redemptione vel alio modo deliberentur’

5-6. Cal. Cl. Rolls, 1234-37, 337

7. Ibid. 338