History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 15
reply they petitioned the Court, explaining that these i-
alleged arrears should not be debited against them. mills,
This was the period of the struggle with Bruce on
Irish soil, and the Castle millers, it appeared, had ^'
fared badly. They had ground grain for various
dignitaries of the Castle—a couple of viceroys, a
treasurer, and a justiciary ; and these had not paid
the toll due. Two of the horses serving the mills,
which were missing and with which they were debited,
had been seized for military purposes. One of the
Damages
13 16-17.
city gates already mentioned, the Gate del Dam, close
to the mills, had been blocked up for an entire year,
(the belfry of the adjoininpf church, Beate Marie del Close Rolls of
• Va j- 1-1 Eng.,
12 Ed. II.,
Dam castro nostro predicto contiguum, bemg taken m. i.
down to find stones for the ;
blockade)
on that side of the city could
so that people
not bring grain to one
of the mills, and took it elsewhere, as by law they Text, ill. 219.
were entitled to do ; all that the mill earned during
the year being 35s.
While in the next year the same
mill was broken down and lay prostrate, so that all it
casually earned during that year was 40s. Thus for
neither of these years could they pay the full rent of
the mill— 10 marks. These drawbacks together, they
alleged, made up the ^17 i8s. now said to be due
from them. The Exchequer thereupon ordered the
mayor and commonalty of Dublin to convene a jury
of twelve citizens, after Easter, to try the case— this
being a veritable " Court of the Mills." The Exchequer ibid., ante, p. 13.
ordered that the jurymen were not to be related to the
millers ; on the other hand, the mayor acted very
fairly in fourteen
summoning, as will be seen from the list,
ordinary citizens, and six pistors who would
be able to bring practical knowledge to bear on the
issue. The jury found in favour of the defendants,
and in the end {1320) it was found that they only
owed the Court twenty pence.
'