Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 403

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Volume 3, Page 403

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[001] she has dower in one county only, the sheriff may make the admeasurement, provided
[002] he is ordered¹ by this writ.]

Of admeasurement of dower in divers counties.²

[004] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. A., the son (or ‘daughter’ ‘brother’ or ‘sister’
[005] ‘grandson’ or ‘granddaughter’ or ‘cousin’) and heir of B. has complained to us
[006] that C. who was the wife of B. has more in dower of her late husband's free tenement
[007] in such a vill (or ‘in such vills’) than she ought to and it is proper for her to have.
[008] Therefore we order you to cause that dower to be admeasured, rightfully and without
[009] delay, so that the aforesaid C. have no more in dower from the inheritance of the
[010] aforesaid A. than she ought to and it is proper for her to have, that is,³ rightful dower,
[011] and that the aforesaid A. have of that dower what he ought to and it is proper for
[012] him to have, lest we hear further complaint for default of justice. Witness etc.’⁴
[013] [Note that the admeasurement ought to be both for what is not due as well as for
[014] what is superfluous, as where a chief messuage or one which is the head of a barony
[015] has been assigned to a woman by the chief lord, where there is something other
[016] from which she can have her rightful dower;⁵ let what is not due be taken from her
[017] and what is due assigned her, because though what was assigned was not due and
[018] superfluous, she cannot be ejected without judgment, by the heir or any other.] When
[019] the sheriff has received the writ let him cause the woman to be summoned⁶ to be
[020] on the land of which the admeasurement is to be made, before the sheriff and the
[021] coroners, if they can be there, and the other free and lawful men whom the sheriff
[022] has chosen to assume. The woman, being summoned, either comes or does not. If
[023] she does not, let them not proceed to the admeasurement at once, but let the land of
[024] which the admeasurement ought to be made be seized into the hand of the lord
[025] king, [That the land ought to be seized into the hand of the lord king is proved [in
[026] the roll] of the eyre of Martin of Pateshull in the county of Lincoln in the tenth
[027] year of king Henry, about the middle of the roll.]⁷ and let her again be summoned,
[028] with her husband, if she has one,⁸ for all those whose right is in question ought to
[029] be present at the making of an admeasurement; if they are not, whatever is done in
[030] their absence will be revoked, unless they absent themselves through malice, as
[031] [in the roll] of Trinity term in the second year of king Henry after the war, in the
[032] county of Dorset, [the case] of Hamon of Halmodeston.⁹ If¹⁰

Notes

1. ‘iussus sit’

2. Erroneous

3. ‘scilicet’

4. Glanvill, vi, 18

5. Supra ii, 269

6. ‘summoneri’

7. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant

8. ‘et ipsa . . . habuerit,’ from lines 26-27

9. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant

10. Om: ‘autem per . . . se absentaverint’

Of admeasurement of dower in divers counties.2

Notes

Of admeasurement of dower in divers counties.²