History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS.
the river of Dee and city of Chester serving for the maintenance of HI.
the fulHng mills of his Majesty, and of divers corn mills and water- ^^SFpcyti^'
works of others standing at the ends of the said causey : Against '__
which decree the mayor and citizens of Chester and likewise his 22. Commis-
Majesty's fermors of the said fulling mills and divers others inte- sioners' Decree
rested in the said corn mills and waterworks did make complaint quashed i6oq.
unto their lordships by their several petitions setting forth the great
benefit and commodity redounding to the said city and country
adjoining, and to the said petitioners and many others by means of
the said causey, mills, and waterworks : And further alleging that the
said breach cannot be lawfully made in the said
same hath continued from time out of mind :
causey by that the
Whereas the said cause being heard and long debated before
their lordships the 27th day of April, 1608, in presence of divers
of the said parties and their counsel, it was then ordered by
their lordships that, for their lordships' satisfaction on the point of
law concerning the validity of the said decree and authority of
the said commissioners, letters should be written to Sir Thomas
ffleming. Knight, Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Edward ; Coke,
Knight, Lord Chief Justice of His Highness' Court of Common
Pleas; and Sir Laurence Tanfield, Knight, Lord Chief Baron of
His Highness' Exchequer, to hear the said cause and the counsel
learned on both sides, and to consider the said decree of the
commissioners and the laws and statutes whereupon the same is
grounded, and to certify thereupon whether the said decree and
proceeding of the commissioners be warranted by law :
According to which said order, letters being sent to the said Lords
the Judges, they have heard the said cause and the counsel learned
on both sides : And upon perusal and consideration of the said
commissioners' said decree referred unto them, and of the said laws
and statutes, they have lately certified their opinion, dated the 29th
day of May last past : Which said certificate being received and this
day weighed and considered :—
Forasmuch as it appeareth to their lordships that power of the
said Commissioners of Sewers doth not extend unto the said causey,
the same shall not be pulled down . . . the commissioners shall
proceed no further against the causey and mills . . . and their said
decision shall not be put in operation.
The report of the three judges, with their signatures
attached, appears in another document :—
The law doth not extend to such ancient mills, millstanks Harl.
[pools], MSS.,
and causeys as were erected before the time of King Edward L, 2084. 363.
except they have been enhanced and exalted above their former
height, and thereby made more prejudicial and hurtful than formerly
they were. In even which case they are not to be pulled down from
the top to the bottom (as the said decree now questioned doth
appoint), but to be reformed by taking away and abating the excess
and enhancement only. And so we humbly take our leaves.
Serjeants' Inn, ffleet Street, 29 May, 1609.
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