Re: Ceremonies of property transfer

[clevin@rci.ripco.com (Craig Levin)]

Poster: clevin@rci.ripco.com (Craig Levin)

Peter:
> Good gentles, I've been following the discussion thus far (and the homage 
> vs. fealty thread) with great interest while reading Littleton with the 
> other eye<g>.

It's not great bedtime reading, but not bad, eh?

> Next item:  the mayor is quite sure that the ceremony =he= wants involves 
> handing over a clump of dirt.  I assume this has something to do with taking 
> actual, as opposed to constructive, possession.  Where does this come in? 

The giving over of a clump of dirt was not unheard of, esp. when
the ceremony was performed at court, as opposed to on or near the
property. It would have been given, I would assume, after the
oathmaker had said his piece.

>  Must the transfer take place while the parties are actually standing on the 
> site in question (there are three separate sites, so that would involve 
> three separate ceremonies) or is it enough if the dirt comes from the right 
> place?

Littleton, in any case, makes no statement as to where the
ceremony ought to take place, and it seems that some people would
go to the Court of Common Pleas, in London, to make their oath
for land they held of the throne before the judges. It also seems
that escheators were empowered to hear fealty for royal lands in
the shires; my guess was that those ceremonies were done at the
shire-moot for the electing of MP's and other local governance
issues. I think that direct reference to the locations of each of
the plots of land in question in the oath, plus the donation of
three mudballs by the mayor to the chancellor/provost, would
work.

-- 
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~clevin/index.html 
clevin@ripco.com
Craig Levin
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