History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

82 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
DEE^MiLLS
CHESTER.
^^' ^^^^^S ^he fifteenth century the records seem
'
to be very meagre, so much so that the entire period
10. An M09~i532 can but at present be bridged over fi-om
Uneventful the list of keepers tabulated by Ormerod, with what
i4oq-iq^2. trifling record maybe attached to each. In 1420-21
Hist. Cheshire, William del Moeles, former clerk and manager of Dee
i. 225. Mills, is declared to owe of his old arrears ^^4. i6s. Q^d. ;
the farmers of the fulling mills on the opposite side of
the river, in the same year, Richard de Hale and his
associates, owing also ^10 13s. 4d. In the year 1429
Thomas Butler, yeoman, who had had charge of the
establishment, was accused of *'
divers transgressions,"
and, with all his servants, was ordered to appear
PI. Ro., before the Court to answer for the same. The staff",
^" ^*
'
as named on September i, 1429, comprised Stephen
Mulner and John Hicson, millers ; Agnes, servant ;
John Bradley, labourer ; Thomas Manchester, marshal ;
William Freget, sporior. But though summoned no
fewer than four times in 1430, the parties did not
appear ; and it seems probable that the matter in
dispute was soon after settled, the only indication of
the fact then remaining being the negative evidence
of the disappearance of their names from the rolls.*
On May 2, 1436, Thomas de Pulford, 'Walet of our
chamber" (afterwards '' of our crown"), who had been
appointed clerk and keeper by Henry VI. during the
royal pleasure, was reappointed for life. Towards the
close of the same year William Foster is mentioned
in the Ministers' Accounts as clerk, apparently as
the deputy of Pulford; and in 1461 Richard Bold,
protonotary, occupied the same subsidiary position.
Pulford seems to have held the supervision of the
No opportunity has occurred for a very close investigation of the rolls ;
those
for the two years under notice comprising over fifty skins of parchment each, many
of them over a yard in length, closely written. But possibly the search might
prove interesting to any local antiquary with sufficient time and zeal to undertake
it. The citations above mentioned appear on m. 7, m. 14, m. 19, m. 23.