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56 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
DEE^MiLLS ^^^ ^ little misapprehension has prevailed in
CHESTER.
'
modern times regarding the origin of these mills and
1. Forewords, their connection with Chester Abbey. A Cheshire
antiquarian publication, which happens to aptly summarise
these perpetuated errors, may be cited :—
Cheshire Sheaf, Hugh Lupus granted to the monks a great number of privileges.
May 1883. Of these princely gifts, not the least in importance and value was the
grant of Dee Mills and the fishery there. These and similar donations
continued a source of revenue to St. Werburgh's all through
the medieval period, and down indeed to the Reformation. Then
Henry VIII., with the reckless benevolence of one who gives to
others what is not his own, transferred the Dee Mills and other
large properties to the newly erected cathedral of St. Werburgh.
Early in the reign of Edward VI. the mills had been lost in litigation
with Sir Robert Cotton. It was at this juncture that the chapter
granted to Edward Plankney a lease, which has more or less affected
the material interests of the old city for more than three centuries.
The fact is that Lupus gave the monks the site for
a mill ; but this, so far from continuing a valuable
source of revenue to them down to the Reformation,
soon passed out of their hands, and the mills early
became ''king's mills." Evidence of Henry VIII.
granting them to the new cathedral is lacking
: he
did grant them to R. Brooke, however. Sir Robert
Cotton gained the mills, not by litigation with the
monks, but direct by grant from Edward VI. Finally,
the dean and chapter did not lease the mills to
Text, post, p. 86. E. Plankney, but only the tithes of the same; and
Hist. Soc. of
this lease in no material way affected the interests of
the city for centuries. This last misapprehension
seems identical with a theory broached elsewhere :—
*Tt seems probable that the gift of Lupus to the abbey
Ches., 1. 238. j^^^ something to do with a claim raised by subsequent
owners of the mills to the right of grinding for the
citizens "
; but the abbey during the very few years
that it had a mill on the bridge did not enjoy the right
of grinding for the city. In a word, the monks had
practically nothing
whatever to do with Dee Mills
during the entire period of their medieval history.