Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 172

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 172

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] that such is his right he offers to deraign by the body of such a one, his free man,
[002] who is prepared to deraign it by his body as one who saw,’ or ‘on the sight of his
[003] father (as was said above) as one whom his father, on his death bed, enjoined in the
[004] faith by which son was bound to father, that if he should hear it discussed he would
[005] be a witness thereto and deraign it by his body, as a thing which the same father
[006] saw and heard.’¹ [If in making the count any of the aforesaid articles is omitted,
[007] and the count is avowed by the demandant so that an error cannot be recalled, the
[008] demandant will lose his claim for himself and his heirs forever.]

How the count of the descent to the demandant is made by single degrees.

[010] The count of descent from the ancestor to the demandant is sometimes made
[011] through several persons and several degrees, and to several persons who are so to
[012] speak a single heir, as to several daughters or² their heirs.³ In that case let the count
[013] be made thus: ‘And from such an ancestor the right of that land descended to such
[014] a one as son and heir, and from such a one to his two (or several) daughters, that is,
[015] to B. the elder and C. the younger.’ Here let a division of the descent be made in
[016] the count for the separate portion which falls to each of them, so that the count of
[017] the descent follows a single line. Let it be put thus: ‘And from the aforesaid B. the
[018] right of half that land descended to such a one, as son (or daughter) and heir. And
[019] from the aforesaid the right of half that land descended to his (or ‘her’) two
[020] daughters, D. and E., (here let a subdivision be made). And from the aforesaid D.
[021] the right of a quarter of that land descended to such a one as son and heir. And
[022] from the aforesaid E. to such a one as son and heir.’ And so by infinite divisions it
[023] may be brought from heir to heir [and] to the twelfth part, if the inheritance
[024] is divided by unciae.⁴ ⁵<But we must proceed cautiously lest in making the
[025] reversion to superior kinsmen in the transverse line the computation exceed the
[026] time of the grandfather of the king, as below.>⁶ Let us return to the other half and
[027] begin the count of the descent again thus: ‘And from the aforesaid C. the right of
[028] the other half descended to such a one as son and heir (or ‘to such a one as daughter
[029] and heir’ or ‘to such persons as daughters and heirs,’ and here let a subdivision be
[030] made, as above)’ [and so] from degree to degree and from person to person to those
[031] who claim. Or in another way: ‘of which such an ancestor was seised etc. (as above)
[032] and because he died without an heir of his body, the right of that land descended
[033] to his three sisters, A. B. and C. (or ‘his sons,’ as in gavelkind or elsewhere where
[034] the land is partible

Notes

1. Glanvill, ii, 3

2. ‘vel’

3. Supra ii, 197

4. Inst. 2.14.5

5. Supra i, 415

6. Supra 170, infra 175