History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

90 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING VOL. IV.
III.
DEE MILLS,
CHESTER.
13. Action
against the
Abbey Mills,
1567-
Had. MSS.,
2081. 253.
Text, IL 262.
defrauding
and breach of all the orders of the Honour-
able Court." Also "the said complainants be daily
endamaged hundreds of their multure by reason
thereof and example of the same ; so that unless some
speedy remedy be provided they shall not be able to
pay their rents, due and payable for the same."
Evidently Mrs. Bavand had plenty of friends among
the inhabitants ; and making allowance for possible
exaggeration of damages, the complainants
no doubt
felt the loss of multure she caused to be withdrawn to
her " free mills."
The next step is to be found in the *'
Examinations
taken in the Queenes Exchequer in her Castle of
Chester" four days later (September 19, 1570), when
every one of the widow's millers, carriers, and other
servants ("great and small," as in Dublin in 1309)
were carried off and examined as to the felonious
practices of their mistress.— John Marshall, miller,
has known the widow Margaret Bavand as farmer of
the mills in question
toll for corn ground.
for seven years
" She and her
past. She took
maid doth come
every day as occasion serveth, and doth measure the
same toll [corn] with a dish, and baggeth it up and
carryeth the same away." Jane,
wife of Richard
Skagvener, " three score and od yeares or thereabouts,"
has known the watermill and the windmill beyond the
Widow Bavand ground
Northgate above fifty years.
corn there brought on horses from the city. Thomas
Mayre, carrier (who carefully states that he is now the
'Mate carrier"), says he used to go daily by her commandment
with two horses to fetch all manner of corn
and grain from any of the inhabitants.
*' When wynd
wantyd at the wyndmyll he carryed
the corne to the
watermyllne, and when water was scante he carryed
the corne to the wyndmyll." Marquess Hogges was
also a late carrier, but had never carried corn since