Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 312

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Volume 4, Page 312

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[001] by an assise of mortdancestor, but when he has so recovered, he will not answer for it,
[002] before his full age, to any writ impetrated on the possession or the property.¹ He
[003] cannot claim free socage on the seisin of ancestors by writ of right before the age of
[004] fourteen,² any more than he may claim a military fee before he has reached the age of
[005] twenty-one, that is, before he has completed his twenty-first year and reached his
[006] twenty-second.³ When he has thus recovered seisin of socage by a writ of right, he
[007] will not answer for it before he is of full age as⁴ of a military fee,⁵ neither to a minor
[008] nor to one of full age,⁶ but when he comes to full age he will answer therefor to anyone
[009] of full age when he is impleaded by writ of right,⁷ but to a minor only in a possessory
[010] action. Suppose that the minor himself or his guardian aliens; quaere whether the
[011] minor, before he reaches full age, may revoke his own deed or that of his guardian. It
[012] appears that he cannot revoke his own deed before his full age, because [when] he
[013] comes to full age he may ratify his gift and make valid what at the outset was invalid.
[014] Nor can he revoke his guardian's deed, since that alienation does no serious harm to
[015] a minor before he reaches full age, and he will then have his recovery by writ of entry,
[016] [unless one says that when an alienation has been made the minor may aid himself at
[017] once by an assise of novel disseisin.] If several minors claim a single thing against the
[018] same man of full age in a possessory action, they cannot all sue at the same time nor
[019] recover at the same time, but the last seisin must be decided [first], as above more
[020] fully in the tractate on the assise of mortdancestor.⁸

The things to which a minor under age ought to answer and those to which he need not.

[022] When a minor is in seisin we must see the things to which he is bound to answer
[023] under age and those to which he need not. If he has been enfeoffed while a minor,
[024] it is clear that, despite his minority, he is bound to answer in every case, on the
[025] property as well as on the possession,⁹ [to anyone of full age] and to one under age
[026] in a possessory action, and will have almost all the remedies by way of exceptions
[027] and of essoins (both of difficulty in coming and of bed-sickness) and in vouching to
[028] warranty, except as to appointing an attorney. [If so, it follows that he cannot have
[029] an essoin of bed-sickness, [because] if languor is awarded him, and after languor he
[030] cannot come to court, if he cannot appoint an attorney he cannot send a responsalis
[031] to answer for him.]¹⁰ He will also answer during

Notes

1. Supra iii, 301, 302, 304, infra 314, 317

2. Supra 81, 224

3. Supra iii, 302

4. ‘ut’

5. Supra iii, 301, 302; cf. ii, 251

6. Om: ‘Item nec . . . praefinitum’

7. ‘per breve de recto,’ from line 11

8. Supra iii, 271

9. Supra ii, 251, iv, 92

10. Cf. supra 92, 106