Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/23

7 seisin," — a seisin distinct from a general seisin, not exclusive of that of the pledgor, but consistent with and dependent upon it, — a parasitic seisin. The word " seisin," of course, was not exclusively- applied to freehold estates in land, but was used of chattels and of chattel estates in land, as leaseholds. And just as a lessee of land had not a seisin of his own, but had his landlord's seisin, so in the case of a pledge, even with possession, the freehold was deemed to remain in the pledgor, and the pledgee was said to be seised " through " the owner of the fee,^ — to be seised not in his own name, but in the name of another.^ The heirs of a pledgee who died in possession were spoken of in contradistinction from the " verus haeres!' ^ The fact that land so in pledge, and even in the possession of the pledgee, was still viewed as in the seisin of the pledgor, appears from the fact that it was subject to dower, not of the pledgee's, but of the pledgor's widow;* and there could be no dower without seisin. If a pledgee in possession were ousted by a stranger, he could not maintain a writ of novel disseisin to recover possession : the pledgor had to bring the action, counting on his own seisin.^ And where one seized as pledgee died in possession, and his heir, being excluded, brought a writ of mort d' ancestor, to get possession, he was provided, not with the ordinary writ of mo7t d'ancestor^ counting upon seisin generally, but with a special writ, alleging in his ancestor a seisin de vadio^ The legal remedy for enforcing a simple gage or pledge of land, in the time of Glanville, so far from having those harsh features which we are wont to attribute to our early law, followed that just and equitable system of Roman law which was the cradle of our equity. When a debt secured upon land was due, the pledgee had a writ expressly framed for foreclosure, substantially identical with the Massachusetts writ of entry for foreclosure of a mortgage. The process could be enforced by the courts by a 1 Glanv., lib. xiii. c. ii : " Qualemcunque seisinam, scilicet per ipsum tenentem vel per aliquem antecessorem ejus, veluti in vadio." 2 4 Bract. (Rolls Ed.) 550, "de vadio, . . . et sic in nomine alieno." 8 Glanv., lib. xiii. c. 28. 4 4 Bract. (Rolls Ed.) 548: "Si autem invadiaverit," etc.; 550: "Item quod nun- quam," etc. fi Glanv., lib. x. c. II. ' Glanv., 1. X. c. 7. " Rex vicecomiti salutem : Praecipe N. quod juste et sine dila- tione acquietat rem illam quam invadiavit R. pro centum marcis usque ad terminum qui praeteriit, ut dicit, et unde queritur quod eam nondum acquietavit; et nisi fecerit," etc
 * Glanv., lib. xiii. cc. 26-30.