Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 120

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Volume 4, Page 120

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[001] And at the end of the writ let this be said: ‘as to which the aforesaid E. and F. in
[002] our court before such persons our justices said that the aforesaid C. and D. were not
[003] in those parts, and that because of their absence they could not make the view of
[004] the aforesaid B. And instruct the aforesaid knights to be before our aforesaid justices
[005] etc. together with the aforesaid E. and F. at the aforesaid term to attest their
[006] view and the day they set him.’ If the sheriff, contrary to the form of the writ,
[007] chooses such as are absent outside the country, let it then be said at the end: ‘and
[008] be you then there present to hear your judgment because you chose the aforesaid
[009] C. and D., who were absent and outside the county, to make the view, when you
[010] ought to have sent knights who were present,¹ so that by such action the plea suffered
[011] so long a delay. And have there this writ and the names of the knights you
[012] have sent de novo. Witness etc.’ If they all die before they view, or when they have
[013] viewed, before they testify, let others then be sent de novo.² If on the first day
[014] neither the knights nor the essoinee come, nor does the sheriff send the writ, the
[015] demandant offering himself for the suit, since what has been done, if anything, cannot
[016] be known, let the sheriff be ordered to send four knights de novo and to be
[017] present to hear his judgment, as to why³ he did not send the writ on the first etc.
[018] If on the first day the knights do not come nor does the sheriff send the writ, but
[019] the essoinee comes and the demandant, let the plea then proceed between them,
[020] unless the demandant wishes to object that the tenant rose without licence or without
[021] the view of knights, [or if he rose by the view of knights, the demandant holds
[022] himself to the default and says that he was viewed by knights other than those who
[023] were sent to him, all or some, or that he rose by the view of persons other than
[024] knights and free men, who at the making of the view, through ignorance, were
[025] assumed to make the view along with the knights, as [in the roll] of Michaelmas
[026] term in the ninth and the beginning of the tenth years of king Henry in the county
[027] Warwick, [the case] of Roger Levelaunce, demandant, and Richard of Gloucester,
[028] tenant and essoinee, where a king's serjeant was assumed as the fourth knight.]⁴
[029] [and] holds himself to the default;⁵

Notes

1. Supra 115

2. Supra 119

3. ‘quare,’ as 130

4. B.N.B., no. 1052; C.R.R., xii, no. 252 (Hil. 9); infra 137

5. Om: ‘oportebit . . . surrexerit’