Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 109

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Volume 4, Page 109

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[001] just as his lord would wait, and afterwards let the essoin of bed-sickness be returned
[002] and a writ for viewing the infirm person [issue].]¹ [If the writ is a writ of right close,
[003] as a praecipe in capite, which is immediately handed to the sheriff and sent to the
[004] Bench, let it be returned in this way. First let the essoiners be exacted, secondly the
[005] demandant or his essoiner, and then if all are present,² let the essoiners at once be
[006] told publicly to go home; thus it is manifest that they are not essoiners but messengers,
[007] because they receive no day. And afterwards let this be said: ‘And you N.,
[008] the demandant, (or ‘essoiner’) will have a writ for having him viewed, and if it is a
[009] passing illness, [a day] at such a term or such a day.’³ Thus it is manifest that the
[010] demandant receives a day certain,⁴ that is, a common day, that he may then come
[011] and sue. Of the year and day at the Tower of London let no mention be made,
[012] because whether ‘languor’ ought to be awarded or not is still pending, and it is the
[013] business of the viewers to give the essoinee a day after they have viewed him, a year
[014] and a day from the day of their view at the Tower of London. If the writ of right
[015] is patent, which always remains in the demandant's possession, as where the plea
[016] has been transferred from the county court to the great court, the writ of right
[017] must first be demanded, that is, on the second day while the plea is new, and it
[018] suffices with respect to all subsequent essoins that it be shown once, and when it has
[019] been shown and read let the essoin be returned. If the demandant does not have it
[020] at hand, let the essoin not be returned until it has been shown, and if he does not
[021] show it within the fourth day, let proceedings then be taken to default against the
[022] demandant, and the essoiners will withdraw sine die, as in the roll of Trinity term
[023] in the fifteenth year of king Henry in the county of Worcester, [the case] of Adam
[024] of Thormarton.⁵ Let the enrolment be made as follows when the essoiners offer
[025] themselves against the demandant on the fourth day: ‘A. and B. the essoiners of
[026] such a one offered themselves on the fourth day against such a one, who claimed so
[027] much land against such a one. The demandant came but did not have his writ of
[028] right, on the first, nor the second, the third or the fourth day, and therefore the
[029] essoiners sine die with respect to that writ.’ The reason may be because no writ was
[030] impetrated nor shown in the court of the chief lord.]

Who are to be exacted in returning an essoin.

[032] [In returning an essoin of bed-sickness all whom the plea touches are to be exacted,
[033] the husband if his wife has been essoined and conversely. Likewise parceners, that
[034] they may have

Notes

1. ‘et breve . . . infirmum,’ from line 1; infra 110; om: ‘ita quod’

2. Om: ‘ita reddatur’

3. Infra 113

4. Infra 115, 124

5. B.N.B., no. 609; C.R.R., xiv, no. 1849