Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 111

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Volume 4, Page 111

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[001] baroness defaults on the day given, let the pledges be summoned to appear on
[002] another day to hear their judgment as to why they did not have him as they had
[003] pledged themselves to do.> ¹ In returning an essoin, no one is allowed to receive the
[004] day of another, especially that of a demandant, in his absence or that of his attorney
[005] or essoiner, because of the inconvenience that could follow, because if it is
[006] done in their absence, and the tenant's essoiner, before the day given on the essoin
[007] of difficulty in coming, should withdraw from court,² [and] the demandant should
[008] offer himself in court and claim judgment on the default, the day accepted by him
[009] who had no interest would be taken as not accepted. If both essoiners, the demandant's
[010] as well as the tenant's withdraw, not much notice need then be taken
[011] of the default, since both are in the same case,³ nor is there anything, so to speak,
[012] that jew may blame on jew. ⁴When one has thus been essoined of difficulty in
[013] coming and his essoiner swears or finds pledges for having him on the day given,
[014] the essoiner ought to come and produce his lord to warrant the essoin he cast on his
[015] behalf.

What it is to warrant an essoin by oath.

[017] To warrant is to swear that he was so detained by illness in coming to court that he
[018] could not come, neither to gain or lose, and that he cast the essoin according to the
[019] law of the land. If he does this he will warrant his essoin.⁵ [If the principal lord does
[020] not come on the day given him by his essoiner, nor the essoiner,⁶ he may excuse
[021] himself, if he wishes, and his lord, by the essoin that he could not come nor have
[022] his lord as he swore because of a supervening difficulty that came upon him on the
[023] journey as he was coming to court.]⁷ But since, if an inquest were taken as to such
[024] matters a long protraction of the plea could be caused, not much attention is to be
[025] given to the warranting of the essoin, because it turns to the prejudice of no one
[026] except the demandant, [and thus] to be overlooked. Suppose that a tenant appoints
[027] an attorney after he has a day by his essoiner and before he has warranted
[028] his essoin, and on the day warranty of the essoin is sought. Quaere who ought to
[029] make the warranty? Not the attorney,⁸ as is evident, because

Notes

1. Belongs in preceding section

2. Om: ‘cum . . . teneatur’

3. Infra 125, 135

4. New paragraph

5. Supra 74, 75

6. Om: ‘[essoniator]’

7. Supra 72, infra 148

8. ‘attornatus’