History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 211
CHAPTER V.
JEDBURGH CORPORATION MILLS.*
1. The story of the. experience of the corporation
v.
of Jedburcrh In running soke mills is chiefly interesting: corpora-
as
.
1 ^-
depicting,
r ^
hrst,
^1
the
1 .
voluntary
.•
creation
r
of
1
a soke,
TION MILLS
imposed by burgesses upon themselves ; and, second, ^' Purchase,
the enforcement of regulations, unsuccessful in the
end, for preventing the import of ready-ground flour
and meal into the town.
The mills to which this little record refers were
originally those of Jedburgh Abbey. They comprised
corn mills and a fulling mill situated near the monastic
house, and also closely adjacent to the borough.
The
corn mills were severally known as the Abbey Mill,
the Town Mill, and the East Mill ; the last named
only being used for grinding wheat, and the others for
reducing "hummel grain," or humble i.e. grain, oats,
etc. The entire set of mills were " commonly called the
Jedburgh Mills"; either, as some said, because they
were In the suburbs of Jedburgh, or, as others contended,
because the borough was astricted to them—
an apparently trifling affair, but, in matter of fact, one
from which some momentous issues ultimately sprung.
After the Dissolution monastery and mills passed
together to the Crown, and in March i6o6 were granted
by James to Alexander, Lord Hume; the charter being
confirmed by an Act of Parliament in 1621. From
* The facts upon which this sketch has been founded appear in a printed
report of an action-at-law in 1843, kindly lent by J. H. MacAdam, Esq., F.S.A.,
Scotland. Mr. McAdam is a studious and enthusiastic collector of books relating
to the archaeology of bread baking, and possesses a library of these quaint works—
English and Continental— that, probably, is unique.