Entry

Writ of. [L. Fr. brefe d'entre; L. Lat. hreve de ingressu.'] A species of real action, of great -antiquity in English law, and, until a comparatively recent period, the general remedy to recover the possession of lands when wrongfully withheld from the owner. 3 BL Com. 180, 183. Its object was to regain the possession of lands of which the demandant, or his ancestors, had been unjustly deprived by the tenant of the freehold, or those under whom he claimed, and hence it belonged to the possessory division of real actions. 3 BL Com. 180. Roscoe*s Real Act 3. It decided nothing with respect to the right of property, but only restored the demandant to that situation in which he was, (or by law ought to have been,) before the dispossession committed. BBl. Com. ISO. There were many varieties of writs of entry under the several titles of Dum/uit non compos mentis, Dum fait infra cetatem, Dum fuit in prisona. Ad eommunem legem. In eo Mt proviso. In casu consimili, Cut in vita, Sur cui in vita, Cui ante divortium, Sur eui ante divortium, Quare efecit infra terminum. Ad terminum qui prcsteriit, and Causa matrimonii proslocuti; all of which have been recently abolished in England, by statute 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27. Roscoe*s Real Aeturns, 3, 88 — 100. See the above titles. The writ of entry was directed to the sheriflf, requiring him to command the tenant of the land that he render (praecipe quod reddat) to the demandant, the land in question^ which he clailns to be his right and inheritance, and of which {de quo, or de quibus) the said tenant unjustly and vrithout judgment disseised [him or] his ancestor, within the time limited by law for such actions, or that upon refusal, he do appear in court on such a day, to show wherefore he hath not done it. Reg. Grig. 229. This was the common or simple form of the writ (called a writ of entry in the quo or quibus,) where it was brought against the party himself that did the wrong. 3 Reeves* Hist. 33. 3 BL Com. 181. If, however, he had made any alienation of the land, or it had descended to his heir, that circumstance was required to be alleged in the writ. This led to certain variations in the form, from which the writ was technically called a writ of entry " in the per,*' "in the per and cui,** or, " in the post,** according to the number of descents or alienations which had taken place. Id. ibid. Reg. Grig. 229. See infhx.