History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 67
of wheat to be g^round at Haffod Mill. In 16^'; the ^i^-
DEE MILLS
holding of the court seems to have been allowed to Chester.'
lapse ; and the millers of the period found it desirable 4. Customs
to take counsel's opinion on the question, *'
Whether and Court,
the fermors, having not of late kept courts nor seised ^^^
corne according to the ancient custom, have lost the
p. 1V5
same by non-user ? "
being consoled by the obliging
opinion that *'Y^ non-user doth not destroy y^
custome." The salary of sixpence a day paid to the
keeper, a fairly good one, compared favourably with
three-halfpence a day paid in 1364 at Perth Mill,
purchased by Edward III. in 1329 and duly placed
in charge of a keeper.* The nature of the duties of
a keeper are suggested by the v^irious designations
under which he appears — clerk and keeper, clericus
apprimator, clerk and approver, &c. ; and the list
at Chester at times includes the appointment of a
royal favourite or body-servant of the sovereign —
valettus honorabilissimus, valettus camere ; these
occasionally being installed for life, and having deputy
keepers and other servants appointed under them.
An instance of the formal binding of one of these
deputies occurs in the year 1409.
5. The foregoing confirmation of the customs in 5. Clerical
in connection with a lease of the ^^^^^^^' ^^5^'
1356 took place
mills in that year to four partners not hitherto included
in the recorded lists of officials of the mills :—
Indenture of the lease of the Dee Mills, 29 Edward III., by Harl. MSS.,
the king to Robert de Bredon, parson of the church of St. Peter in 2081. 181.
Chester; Simon de Asewell, clerk; John de Newark, clerk; and
Nicholas de Eccleston, carpenter : as wdl fulling mills as corn mills,
with fishings on both sides of the bridge, but not the fishing under
the bridge when the same shall be finished [the bridge, destroyed in
1227 and 1280, again appearing to have been wrecked], which is
reserved to the king ; with all customs and multure for three years ;
* The accounts of the provost of Perth in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland for
1364 include " payment made to a certain keeper of the mills during the time
they were in the hands of the king, for the custody of the mills and collection of
the receipts for the year, 44s. 4d."
'