Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 22

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Volume 4, Page 22

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[001] the word ‘term’ [in the phrase ‘term] which has passed’ is taken broadly, both for a
[002] term of life and a term of years. It is clear that he who demises for a term of years,
[003] though a very long one, provided it may be proved by the testimony of one who saw
[004] and heard, retains dominium, proprietas, the fee and the free tenement, if he had them
[005] all at the outset, or those of them that he then had. For he transfers nothing to the
[006] farmer except the right to use and enjoy, that is, to have the use and take the fruits.¹
[007] Hence the owner may well transfer everything he retained to another, without wrong
[008] to the termor; if he does not, he transfers them all to his heirs. Note that the words
[009] ‘for a term that has passed’ are general and may determine many special cases, for
[010] what is not said in the writ may be supplied in the narratio. Since it is general, let us
[011] first speak of that. The form of the writ is this:

Writ if one demises for a term that has passed.

[013] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Order A. rightfully and without delay to return to
[014] B. so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill which the same B. demised to
[015] him for a term that has passed, as he says. If he does not do so, and if the same B. has
[016] made you secure with respect to prosecuting his claim, summon the aforesaid A. by
[017] good summoners to be before our justices at their first session when they come into
[018] those parts, to show why he has not done so. And have there the summoners and this
[019] writ. Witness etc.’ How the tenant ought to be summoned, and if he does not appear
[020] after summons, how the default ought to be punished, will be explained more fully
[021] below [of real actions.] He may essoin himself, if he wishes, of difficulty in coming,
[022] not of bed-sickness, because the essoin of bed-sickness never lies unless the writ of
[023] entry is turned into a writ of right by the narratio, because of a very distant entry
[024] which cannot be proved by a witness's own sight and hearing, only by that of another,
[025] where of necessity the suit must be on the mere right by the grand assise or the duel.²
[026] When the writ of entry begins to be of a nature other than it was at the beginning, that
[027] is, to have that of a writ of right, it ought properly to have everything that belongs to
[028] the writ whose nature it follows in the narratio. Conversely, if by the narratio a writ of
[029] right is turned into a writ of entry, it ceases to have the nature of a writ of right and
[030] thus it will lose the essoin of bed-sickness, for the reason aforesaid.³ But if, though the
[031] writ of right begins to be a writ of entry by the narratio, and the demandant puts forward
[032] his intentio,⁴

Notes

1. Supra ii, 92

2. Infra 23

3. Infra 91, 98, 105

4. ‘intentio,’ as infra 25, line 5