Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 145

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Volume 4, Page 145

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Where the essoin of vill-sickness does not lie.

[002] In the county court the essoin of vill-sickness does not lie, because of the shortness
[003] of the day of the county court, where the fourth day is not awaited, as in the roll
[004] of Hilary term in the sixth year of king Henry in the county of Buckingham, [the
[005] case] of Alice de Jarpenville and Peter de Immere.¹ Nor before justices assigned to
[006] take some assise or jury, or to do something of the sort on a certain day, where the
[007] fourth day is not awaited. Nor does it lie in the person of any attorney, whether he
[008] is appointed attorney in the county court or in the court of the lord king, because
[009] though the knights are sent to him, he cannot appoint an attorney,² any more than
[010] a procurator may appoint a procurator,³ as in the roll of Easter term in the ninth
[011] year of king Henry in the county of Buckingham, [the case] of the attorney of
[012] Henry de Sancto Walerico,⁴ who essoined himself at Westminster of vill-sickness
[013] for three days and on the fourth, counsel and deliberation having been had among
[014] the justices, the essoin of vill-sickness was not allowed him, because he could not
[015] appoint an attorney. And if he could come in person on the fourth day, he could
[016] not save the three preceding days, and hence his lord was in default. The land was
[017] taken into the lord king's hand by the little cape, since he offered himself in court
[018] on his lord's behalf and was seen in court by justices who have record. Suppose that
[019] after an essoin of bed-sickness and ‘languor’ attested by the four knights, one defaults
[020] before he appears in court; the land must be taken into the hand of the lord
[021] king by the little cape,⁵ as though he had earlier appeared in court, because he can
[022] no more deny the day given him by the four knights than if it had been given him
[023] in court, because as to that they ought to have record,⁶ nor will the day of seizure
[024] be sent as by the grand cape,⁷ because ‘why⁸ he did not observe the day given him by
[025] the four knights’ will never be said. And that they have record, and that it cannot
[026] be denied against their record, neither by wager of law nor by one who heard and
[027] knew, so that their record may not stand, you have [in the roll] of the eyre of Martin
[028] of Pateshull in the county of Leicester in the time of king John,⁹ [but that was because
[029] the essoinee acknowledged before the four knights that he was essoined, which
[030] he could not deny by wager of law against their record, since they found him in bed
[031] acknowledging the essoin. If they do not so find him, it will be another matter.]¹⁰
[032] Similarly, if one appoints an attorney outside the court, before the justices, and
[033] defaults, though he has not appeared in court the land must be seized into the hand

Notes

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

2. Supra 104

3. Supra 86-7, 104, 106, infra 279

4. Not in B.N.B.; roll extant but not in C.R.R. xii

5. Infra 165-7

6. Supra 66, 125

7. Infra 149

8. ‘quare,’ as infra 149

9. Not in B.N.B.

10. Supra 66-7