ASSISE

L. Fr. Situated. De la ville ou son castle est assise; of the town where his castle is situated. Stat. Westm. 1, c. Stat. Westm. 1, c. 7. See Assisus. ASSISE, Assize. [L. Fr. assise, assis; L. Lat. assisa, from assidere, to sit together, according to Coke; or from Fr. assis, placed, quality, weight, measure, &c. Id. A tax, or tribute. Id. A fine. Id. See Assisa. These various significations of the word assise, which is called by Littleton (sect. 234) nomen æquivocum, will be considered more at large under the following heads: A species of jury; a certain number of men, usually twelve, summoned to try a cause, and who sat together for that purpose. * Fleta, lib. 4, c. 1, § 7. Co. Litt. 153. 3 Bl. Com. 185. Lord Coke derives the word, in this sense, from assidere, to sit together. Co. Litt. ub. sup. Spelman derives it from assisus, fixed or settled, because the number of jurors, which anciently was uncertain and indefinite, was, by the law establishing the assise, fixed and defined (assisus et definitus); and in this he is supported by Skene, (voc. Assisa.) See Ersk. Inst. b. 4, tit. 4, § 92. The idea of certainty is also prominently presented by the definition of the Grand Coustumier of Normandy, though it is a certainty of time and place, rather than of persons. "Assise is an assembly of knights and other substantial men, with the bailiff or justice, in a certain place, and at a certain time appointed." Grand Coust. c. 24, cited in Cowell. Mr. Reeves, on the authority of Glanville, says a jury was called an assise from the assisa, or law by which the application of this trial was ordained. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 84. * **The assise, properly so called, was introduced by Henry II. as a substitute for the duellum or battel, and was established particularly for the trial of questions of seisin of land. Glanv. lib. 2, c. 7. It was otherwise termed recognitio, and the persons composing it recognitores. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 86. The common jury, (jurata patriæ, or inquisitio patriæ,) had been previously in use, and was commonly resorted to as a mode of trial, in other in- A species of writ, or real action, said to have been invented by Glanville, chief justice to Henry II., and having for its object to determine the right of possession of lands, and to recover the possession. 3 Bl. Com. 184, 185. According to Lord Coke, assises were used in England, time out of mind. 3 Co. pref. v. vi. This remedy, however, was only applicable to two species of injury by ouster, viz., abatement, and a recent, or novel disseisin. 3 Bl. Com. 185. The principal assises were those of novel disseisin, mort d'uncestor, darrein presentment, and utrum. See infra. These writs, according to Littleton, were called assises, because by them the sheriff was ordered to summon a jury or assise, which was not expressed in any other original writ. Litt. sect. 234. Co. Litt. 154 b, 159. Cowell suggests three other reasons: first, because they settled the possession; secondly, because they were originally executed at a certain time and place, formerly appointed; and lastly, because they were tried most commonly by special courts set and appointed for that purpose. Assises have been abolished in England with other real actions. The whole proceedings in court upon a writ of assise. "Co. Litt. 159 b. The verdict or finding of the jury upon such a writ. 3 Bl. Com. 57. These significations serve to explain the expression "to take the assises," (ad assisas capiendas), which is so common in the old books and statutes. Blackstone construes the expression "to take recognitions or assises," used in Magna Charta, (c. 12,) to mean, 66 to take (or receive the verdict of the jurors or recognitors in certain actions then called) recognitions or assises." 3 Bl. Com. 57. See Id. 59, 352. ASSISE, Assize. A court; the sittings of a court. This is an ancient sense of the word. Grand Coustum. Norm. c. 55, cited in Cowell. Bract. fol. 179. Reg. Orig. 197 b. Spelman. The plural assizes is still used in England to denote the sessions of the judges of the superior courts, holden periodically in each county, for the purpose of administering civil and criminal justice. See Assises. In some of the United States, also, while colonies of Great Britain, courts were denominated assizes. ASSISE, Assize. An ordinance, statute or regulation. Spelman gives this meaning of the word the first place among his definitions, observing that statutes were in England called assises down to the reign of Henry III. The Assises of Jerusalem, (q. v.) and the Assises of Clarendon, are prominent and early instances of the use of the word in this sense. It is used in the same sense by the earliest English writers. Glanv. lib. 9, c. 10. Bract. fol. 120 b. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 17. Britt. cc. 30, 31. The rules and regulations respecting the royal forests were called assises of the forest. The ordinance of 27 Henry II., obliging every man, according to his estate, to provide a determinate quantity of such arms as were then in use, in order to keep the peace, was called the assise of arms. Any thing reduced to a certainty in respect to time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, &c. Spelman. A fixed time. Glanv. lib. 13, c. 32. A fixed or certain number, as of a jury. See supra. A fixed sum, as a tax, a fine. Spelman. Lib. Nig. Scacc. cited ibid. Rent of assise is a fixed or established rent of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of a manor, which cannot be departed from, or varied. 2 Bl. Com. 42.

Cowell.—Assisa de foresta. Assise of the forest; a statute concerning orders to be observed in the royal forests.—Assisa de mens . Assise of measures. A cummon rule for weights and measures, established throughout England by Richard I., in the eighth year of his reign. Hale. Com. Law, c. 7.—Assisa de nocumento. An assise of nuisance; a writ to abate or redress a nuisunce.—Assisa de utrum. An obsolete writ, which lay for the parson of a church whose predecessor had alienated the land and rents of it.—Assisa friscse fortise. Assise of fresh force, which sec.—Asesisa mortis d’ancestoris. Assise of mort daxnccstor, which see.—Assisa novs disseysinse. Assise of novel disseisin, which see. —Assisa panis et cerevisise. Assise of bread and ale, or beer. The name of a statute passed in the fifty-first year of Henry III., containing regulations for the sale of bread and ale; sometimes called the “statute of bread and ale.” Co. Litt. 159b; 2 Reeve, Hist. Eng. Law, 56; Cowell; Bract. fol. 155.—Assisa proroganda. An obsolete writ, which was directed to the judges assigned to take assises, to stay proceedings, by reason of a party to them being employed in the king’s business. Reg. Orig. 208. —Assisa ultims presentationis. Assise of darrein presentment, (q. v.j—Assisa venalium. The assise of salable commodities, or of things exposed for sale. that statutes were in England called ‘“assises’’ down to the reign of Henry III. 6. A species of writ, or real action, said to have been invented by Glanville, chief justice to Henry II., and having for its object to determine the right of possession of lands, and to recover the possession. 3 Bl. Comm. 184, 185. 7. The whole proceedings in court upon a writ of assise. Co. Litt. 1596. The verdict or finding of the jury upon such a writ. 3 Bl. Comm. 57. —Assise of Clarendon. See ASSISA.—Asesise of darrein presentment. A writ of assise which formerly lay when a man or his ancestors under whom he claimed presented a clerk to a benefice, who was instituted, and afterwards, upon the next avoidance, a stranger presented a clerk and thereby disturbed the real patron. 3 Bl. Comm. 245; St. 13 Edw. I. (Westm. 2) c. 5. It has given way to the remedy by quare itmpedit—Assise of fresh force. In old English practice. A writ which lay by the usage and custom of a city or borough, where a man was disseised of his lands and tenements in such city or borough. It was called “fresh force,” because it was to be sued within forty days after the party’s title accrued to him. itzh. Nat. Brev. 7 C.—Assise of mort @’ancestor. <A real action which lay to recover land of which a person had been deprived on the death of his ancestor by the abatement or intrusion of a stranger. 8 Bl. Comm. 185; Co. Litt. 159¢. It was abolished by St. 3 & 4 Wm. IV. & 27.—Assise of novel disseisin. A writ of assise which lay for the recovery of lands or tenements, where the claimant had been lately disseised.—Assise of nuisance. A writ of assise which lay where a nuisance had been committed to the complainant’s freehold; either for abatement of the nuisance or for damages.—Assise of the forest. A statute touching orders to be observed in the king’s forests. Manwood, 35.—Assise rents. The certain established rents of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of a manor; so called because they are assised, or ‘made precise and certain. Grand assize. <A peculiar species of trial by jury, introduced in the time of Henry II., giving the tenant or defendant in a writ of right the alternative of a trial by battel, or by his peers. Abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 42, § 13. See 3 BI. Comm. 341.

See ASSIZE.

Two or more beds or strata of rock united by the occurrence of fossils of the same characteristic species or genera.