PRESCRIPTION.
Prescription, is three-sold, viz.
- 1. Personall, as the Inhabitants of a Town may prescribe for a way, &c.
- 2. Reall, as incident to an estate, as for a man to prescribe that he and they whose estate he hath had common, &c.
- 3. Locall, as where a man doth prescribe that within such a Mannor, &c.
Prescription, is a title taking his substance of use,* 1.1 and time allowed by the Law, as I. S. seised of the Mannor of D. in see, prescribeth thus, that I. S. his Ancestors, and all those whose estate he hath in the said Mannor, have time out of mind of man had, and used to have Common of pasture in such a place, being the Land of some other, as pertaining to the said Mannor. This properly we call a prescription. Cook on Lit. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 170.
Prescription shall hold sometime against the King, in such things as a man may prescribe in,* 1.2 as one shall prescribe for wayse and straise against the King. The King may also outstay his time, if it be found the Tenant for term of life, hath forfeited his estate to the King, whereby the King ought to cease, if his grace sease not, but tarry till he be dead, so that he in the reversion entreth, he cannot then cease, so that maxim is not universally true, Nullum tempus occurrit Regi.
The Statute de praerogativa Regis, quòd nullum tempus occurrit Regi, is to be understood when