Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 334

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Volume 3, Page 334

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[001] as it would escheat to any other private person, because of the service and the mere
[002] right, which cannot descend to another, and [if homage intervened] it disappears, as
[003] between any other persons whomsoever.¹ But if the church, or the parson in the
[004] name of the church, receives nothing except in the name of alms, he can claim
[005] nothing in the name of escheat; it will belong to those who are in seisin of the service.²
[006] But suppose that a parson, who receives something in the name of alms, puts himself
[007] into the escheat, through the negligence of the true lord, and thus appropriates that
[008] tenement to himself, or transfers it to another, by a causa of some kind, to hold of
[009] the church for a certain service together with the alms; quaere whether [after his
[010] death] his successor can claim that tenement in demesne. It seems that he can,
[011] because the entry of his predecessor, though wrongful as against the true lord,
[012] [is good] until the true lord, who has the right, shows that the tenement is his
[013] escheat. And what if both claim at one and the same time? Quaere which of them
[014] ought to be preferred to the other. In truth, recourse must first be had to the last
[015] seisin of the predecessor, though it is wrongful, by the assise, and afterwards, when
[016] the parson has obtained by the assise, a writ of entry will lie against him. And what if
[017] the tenant is first impleaded by writ of right and vouches the successor parson to
[018] warranty? [If] he is in seisin of the homage and service of that tenant, he is then bound
[019] to warrant, at least during his lifetime, not in perpetuity;³ after his death his successor
[020] will have an action notwithstanding the homage and service done to his predecessor.
[021] If he is not, he is not bound to warrant, unless he wishes to do so of his own
[022] accord, since he is about to claim the tenement in demesne. ⁴<If a bastard, a clerk or a
[023] layman, has been enfeoffed to hold of the church, and has no heir of his body, and has
[024] not assigned his land or tenement to anyone during his life by the modus of the gift,
[025] and the rector of the church [puts himself into the escheat and enfeoffs another for
[026] homage and service, the rector of the church] who succeeds him, when he claims
[027] the tenement in demesne, acquires nothing by the assise except the service, [but]
[028] he may claim the land in demesne, against any possessor, as his escheat in the name of
[029] his church, by this writ: ‘Order such a one that rightfully etc. he render to such a
[030] rector so much land with the appurtenances etc. which he claims is the right of his
[031] church and which ought to revert to his said church as its escheat, since such a one,
[032] once the rector of his aforesaid church, through whom the aforesaid had his entry into
[033] that land, [held that land in demesne as the right of his church, because such a one
[034] who] was a bastard held of his aforesaid church and died without an heir of his body,
[035] as he says. And unless he does so etc.’>

Notes

1. Supra ii, 75

2. Supra 332

3. ‘saltem si non in perpetuo quoad vixerit’

4. Supra i, 407