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60 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
DEE^MiLLS ^^^ Other rights on a sound and satisfactory basis ; so
CHESTER. '
much SO that at the opening of the fifteenth century,
dissatisfaction with the then
3. Claims by at a period of popular
the customs of the time of
Lessee, management of the 9-
place,
"
t'the late Earl Randolphe were specifically quoted
as good and laudable usages which should prevail for
the benefit of the city.
On the death of the seventh Norman earl, John
Scott, in 1237, Edward, the first Prince of Wales,
became the next Earl of Chester. Under his rule
as sovereign Dee Mills—now ''king's mills"— speedily
attained a very extensive and prosperous condition.
Ormerod, the historian of Cheshire, quotes
as the
first of the keepers Richard Ingeniator,* 1 302-1 306.
His name occurs somewhat before this date, however.
An early document relating solely to the mills is
Hist. Cheshire, a writ of Edward I., January 23, 1279, ordering the
*" ^^^' dismissal of Richard the Engineer from the mills.
This lessee, like many of his successors, was a person
of considerable local consequence ; and the order for
his removal—which was not carried out—seems not to
have been due to any inefficiency or neglect on his
part, but solely that Edward might grant the mills or
their custody to
A reason for this
the distant abbey of Vale Royal.
somewhat is strange proceeding to
be found in the fact that Vale Royal, founded by
Edward a few years before, when Prince of Wales,
was a favourite House with him. Among other of his
grants to it, made on attaining the throne, there may
be found in the chartulary of Vale Royal one of land
in Chester near the East Gate, and another of land in
Bridge Street, the street leading direct to the mills ;
while, from the subsequent pleas of Richard the
Engineer, it seems he had also granted away other
* A curious but not rare designation :— Terra Waldini Ingeniatoris {Domesday,
i* 365^), Magistro Alberto Ingeniatori [Cart. Ram,^ cxliv.). It had the general
signification of a manager of works.