Bii John Watson- Taylor. 77 



two, though the exact nature of the transactions involved is not 

 clear, it seems evident that he could also dispose of it by mortgage 

 or deed of gift, and by will or settlement, while his widow could 

 claim a dower. The cases of disposal by sale have, so far, been 

 between the tenant and the lord only, but at the assizes held at 

 Wilton in 1281 a suit was heard which shows that there was no 

 limit in this respect. In this case the plaintiff was John de 

 Cheverell, who sought to recover seisin of a free tenement in 

 Erlestoke that he had acquired from one John Bever, and his 

 statement, made in court, was to the effect that Eichard Bever 

 having died some years before seised of a free tenement consisting 

 of a messuage and a virgate of land, less two acres and a third 

 part of two acres, with appurtenances, left two sons — both named 

 John — of whom the elder was at the time of his father's death 

 under arms in foreign lands, but returned home as soon as he heard 

 of his father's death, and after obtaining possession of the tenements 

 from the lord of the manor made them over to the plaintiff, and 

 after he (John de Cheverell) had had possession of them for some 

 nine days, that John the younger came with several others and 

 disseised him without a judgment. The report of the jurors con- 

 firmed this statement, and the court ordered that John de Cheverell 

 sliould recover his seisin and awarded him damages against the 

 defendants, which were assessed at forty pence, whereupon John 

 Bever the younger and the other defendants, excepting John Bever 

 the elder, were attached.^ At the same time and place John de 

 Cheverell brought a further action of novel disseisin against the 

 lord of the manor and two others who were probably officials of 

 the manor court — hay wards or tellers — for common of pasture, 

 on two hundred acres of common, for his horses, cattle, and swine 

 without numl)er, but in this case he was defeated, for it was shown 

 by William de Wendlesworthe, as bailiff for the defendants, and 

 confirmed by the jury, that John de Cheverell held no free tene- 

 ment in Erlestoke except the virgate that he had acquired from 

 John Bever, and that neither this man nor his father Eichard had 

 ever had any rights of common pasture as an appurtenance of the 



> Asiize Roll No. 1002, 9 Ed. I., m. 4. 



