History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 31
survey of Shropshire took place in 1086, and the i^
which was then in course of abbey
founding of the abbey,
erection, is twice referred to, and its grant of mills
recited • ^* Foundation,
1083.
In Sciropesberie civitate facit Rogerius com abbatia 7 eid ded Domesday,
monasteriu S. Petri ubi erat parochia civitat^ tantu de suis burgibuz ^- ^SS*-
7 molinis qd: xii li'b redd monachis.
Dicunt anglig^ burgses de Sciropesberie . . . abbatie qua facit Ibid., i. 252.
ibi comes dederit ipse xxxjx burgses.
In the city of Shrewsbury Earl Roger is building an abbey, and
has given to it the monastery of St. Peter's, where was a parish
[church] of the city ; and also as many of his burgages and mills as
would yield ;^i2 [per annum] to the monks.
The English burgesses of Shrewsbury say that the earl has given
to the abbey he is building there 39 burgages.
The burgages were not on the abbey lands, but in
the city ;
otherwise the citizens would have had nothing
to say about them. To yield a total income of ^12
per annum, Roger seems to have largely miscalculated
the probable produce of the burgages and mills. The
Domesday value of burgages in St. Alkmond's parish, ibid., i. 253.
in Shrewsbury, was 5d. each ; and the average
houses in ibid., 252^
gablo payment for each of the fifty-two
Shrewsbury liable in the time of the Confessor
had been y^d. It is thus clear that the yield
of the thirty-nine burgages would amount to very
little, even with the value of their multure (which,
of course, usually followed ownership) added thereto.
The general income of the mills, therefore, was
clearly relied upon to afford the main portion of
the ^12 per annum. But the value of mills in
the entire county was only small, as hand-stones
were doubtless in general use. There was one
mill in the county, that of Stanton, which yielded
26s., and two others were rented at 20s. each; but Text, ll. 163.
these were high values, and the average was under
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