"_Berewyke_: 'Since it is found that he entered on the tenements
according to the custom, &c.--although you were seised for four weeks,
yet that ought not to give you a title--this Court adjudges that you do
take nothing by the writ, &c. After Martin's death be well advised.'"
Communal law, however, was not allowed to _override_ the law of
England.[12] This principle was asserted in 1293, when Thomas le
Chamberleyn brought a writ before the Common Bench against a certain W.,
who, he complained, had taken his horse in the highway in the town of
Bernewell. The writ ran--"took in the highway and still keeps
impounded." There was the usual wrangle between counsel, and an attempt
was made to oust or invalidate the writ by asserting that six years and
a half before it (the writ) was purchased the animal had been
surrendered. After this preliminary fencing counsel for the defence
produced his real case, which was that by the King's charter the
burgesses of Cambridge had a franchise to this extent, that when clerks
or other persons were in debt they might seize their horses or other
property within the liberty; and as Thomas was bound in so many
shillings, his horse was seized according to the custom of the town, and
in no other way. The trespass being admitted, the Judge (Gislingham)
proceeded to give judgment on the plea of justification. He said:
"For that it is against the common law and against the statutes to make
such a taking in the highway unless he be the King's bailiff,
notwithstanding any franchise which the King may have granted, therefore
the Court adjudges that Thomas do recover his damages, and that W.
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