History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

120 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: VOL. IV^
DEE^MiLLS ^^^^^S ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ '
CHESTER.
^h^y considered lawful. Seller
stated that he then took the mill from them at a heavy
30. Action rack-rent for a year, but was served with process a
against Poor week after ; and '' if he shall be debarred of liberty ta
'
'
grind he shall be utterly undone, being a verie pore
man." They all declared that ''this is a very ancient
that there was
mill (claiming soke custom of its own) ;
a water corn mill where this mill now standeth time
out of mind ; and always the owners thereof have
carried corn there out of the city on horseback and
sometimes in carts, and taken toll without hindrance
till now." Charyles had himself, as an employe,,
carried corn there for seventeen or eighteen years past.
They denied they " have or ever have had in their
possession any of the grants, writings,
or evidences
concerning Dee Mills, or other things mentioned in
the bill as belonging thereto ; and humbly crave this
honourable Court that, pending the full hearing of
the cause, they may not be deprived
of the use and
custom of fetching and grinding corn, for they sit upon
a great rack-rent for the mill." The result of the
action could only be permission to continue their trade
so long as they abstained from grinding for citizens of
Chester.
31. Parliament- 31. Francis Gamull, who hitherto, indeed, had
^^^
^j^^aT^^^' enjoyed little of the dignified ease popularly assigned
1646.
to the lordly miller of the Dee, was destined, how-
ever, to experience still further and more serious
trouble. In August 1642 symptoms of the approach-
before the
ing civil war broke out in Chester ; and
close of the month Charles I. visited the city, strong
itself in its loyalty to the doomed king, but possessing
no more devoted servant to the royal cause than
Francis Gamull, who took a foremost part in the
military duties which fell upon the civic rtilers of
the city. He had the honour of entertaining Charles