ENTRY, WRIT or. An ancient form of action at common law for the recovery of the possession of land wrongfully withheld from the claimant. It belonged to the class of possessory, as distin guished from droitural, remedies, in the latter of which the right (droit) or title to the land was tried, and in the former the mere right of pos session. But the feudal origin and character of our land law made title or ownership of real property depend in most instances on the posses sion of the land, and accordingly the possessory remedies came gradually to supersede those which were based upon a direct and exclusive assertion of ownership. There were many of these posses sory remedies appropriate to various circum stances (of which the assize of Nord and the assize of snort d'ancestor were in most general use) ; hut the one which was available in all rases of wrongful ouster or dispossession, nuttier otherwise provided fcr or not, was the writ of entry. The efficacy of this proceeding stns due to the fact that it gave effect to the right of entry. by the exercise of which one who
entitled to a freehold estate was enabled by the mere act of taking possession to reinvest him ,elf with his rights therein. t :See ENTRY, RIGHT or.) In the coarse of time the proceeding by writ of entry became as intricate and complicat ed as the earlier remedies which it had displaced. and it was abandoned in favor of the more sin;,mary action of ejectment. (See EJECT MENT.) After having long fallen into disuse. the writ of entry was, along with the other an cient possessory remedies. abolished by act of Parliament. in 3 and 4 Will. IV.. c. 27,,sec. 36. It survive, in several of the United States, however, in a simplified form, and usually for special purposes only—as, in some of the New England States, as a means of enforcing a mortgage. See Assay:: FORECLOSURE; SEISIN. Consult the authorities referred to under REAL PROPERTY.