For if the Demandant chuses to resort to such Tribunal, it belongs to the Ecclesiastical Judge to hold pleas of Marriage-hood; a Jurisdiction he acquires from the mutual Troth usually plighted, when any one promises to marry a Woman, and she in her turn promises marriage to him. Nor, indeed, is the Ecclesiastical Judge prohibited by the King’s Court from holding such plea, although it concern a Lay-fee, if it be clear that the demand relate to Marriage. But if the Suit be brought against a Stranger, then, indeed, it shall be determined in the Lay Court, and that, in the same manner and order in which Pleas concerning other Lay Fees are generally conducted.
Yet, should it be observed, that the Suit ought not to be proceeded in, without the Warrantor, as we formerly mentioned when treating of Dower. The Suit, indeed, must be proceeded in, as far as respects the Warrantor, in the same manner as a Plea in Dower. What we, therefore, said on the former occasion with respect to this point, is applicable to the present. It remains to add, that the third Heir, after he has once done Homage, can[297] proceed in the suit without the authority of the Warrantor.
Book VIII.
OF A CONCORD MADE IN COURT; AND OF THE CHIROGRAPHS CONTAINING THE CONCORD; AND OF THE RECORDS OF THE COURT OR COURTS, IF EITHER OF THE PARTIES SHOULD BREAK THE CONCORD, AND FINE, MADE IN COURT.
CHAP. I.
But it often happens, that Pleas moved in the King’s Court are determined by an amicable composition and final Concord, but with the consent and License of the King or his Justices, whatever the Plea may concern, whether Land, or any other thing. Such a Concord is, with the general consent of the persons interested, usually reduced into a writing, common to all the parties,[298] which is recited before the King’s Justices of the Common Pleas,[299] in whose presence each person’s part of the writing, agreeing in all things with the other’s, is delivered to the party. The Concord is in the following form——