Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 36

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Volume 3, Page 36

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[001] or¹ a chirograph and² a fine levied, unless he does this by force of a counter-agreement,
[002] as where it is so agreed in a gift that unless such a thing be done (or not done)
[003] the other may lawfully put himself in seisin despite the fine levied or the agreement or
[004] the homage taken. We then must see whether the agreement or fine has been complied
[005] with, satisfactorily and in the proper way, so that he who has put himself into
[006] seisin ought to be content with what was done.³ The assise does not lie for one who
[007] holds by the law of England, or in the name of dower, or in any other way for life so
[008] that he has a free tenement, if he commits⁴ waste or destruction, if the chief lord, or a
[009] friend whose concern it is, takes his tenement into his hand by a simple taking because
[010] of the waste and destruction, provided he is prepared to restore after full satisfaction
[011] made as to the waste done and security taken against any further commission of waste,
[012] [a rule] which may also be applied if one so acts⁵ who has the wardship. On this
[013] matter may be found in the eyre of Martin of Pateshull for the taking of assises of
[014] novel disseisin and gaol deliveries in the county of Northampton, an assise of novel
[015] disseisin [beginning] ‘If Roger of Deneford.’⁶ For to such persons reasonable estovers
[016] are granted, not waste, and if they are curtailed as to that which exceeds mean and
[017] measure no injuria will be done them.⁷ Thus the intention of the person ejecting or
[018] impeding sometimes excuses him whose interest it is, a kinsman or friend, of disseisin.⁸
[019] The assise does not lie for a wife by herself without her husband, nor with
[020] him, if he makes a gift of her inheritance,⁹ because she cannot bring an assise by herself
[021] without her husband during his lifetime, [nor after his death,]¹⁰ and if both are
[022] named the assise falls, because the husband was not wrongfully disseised. Nor can
[023] she be sued without her husband, nor [with her husband, because] both [did not]
[024] commit the disseisin. It does not lie for a lord against his tenant for service withheld,
[025] because distraint lies,¹¹ ¹²<[nor for a tenant against his lord], as long as distraint does
[026] not turn to disseisin, which may happen in many ways, if it is not reasonable, as
[027] elsewhere.>¹³ but it lies against another, ¹⁴<as where a stranger distrains the tenant
[028] to pay him; the assise lies between the lord and the stranger at once. If the tenant
[029] pays the stranger of his own accord, the assise will lie against both.>¹⁵ ¹⁶<If the tenant
[030] answers to the assise in this way, that it does not lie between him and his lord, by so
[031] doing he acknowledges that he holds of him and thus the assise falls;¹⁷ but when it
[032] falls distraint at once arises, and thus in the same proceeding let the justice at once
[033] order the sheriff to aid the lord to distrain, if he cannot do so without help. If the
[034] tenant disavows his lord, that at once makes him a non-tenant, as far as he himself
[035] is concerned, though in truth he remains tenant, and thus disseisin lies at once,¹⁸ for
[036] many reasons.> <One may be my tenant

Notes

1. ‘vel’

2. ‘et’

3. Infra 123, 124, 144, 146

4. ‘fecerit’

5. Infra n. 8

6. Not in B.N.B.; C.R.R., xii, p. xii

7. Infra 153, 405

8. Reading: ‘Et sic . . . impedientis, cuius interfuerit, parens vel amicus, quandoque’

9. Om: ‘vivente uxore’

10. Cui in vita

11. Infra 116

12. Supra i, 392

13. Infra 153, 154

14-15. ‘ut si . . . in persona utriusque,’ from lines 36-39; infra 117

16. Supra i, 393

17. Infra 117

18. Supra ii, 243, infra 116, 117