History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

68 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
in. paying therefor to the king at his Exchequer in Chester one
-^^^^^^1^^' hundred fourscore and ten pounds yearly. The king granting
;__ timber from his woods and forests sufficient, by the view of his
5. Clerical
foresters or carpenters, for wheels, cogges, rungs, sheldes, ladles, and
Lessees 13^6. other necessaries of timber whatsoever for the same mills during the
term. The aforesaid Lord Edward at his own proper cost to make
anew all the wheels of the aforesaid mills and other necessaries that
shall be required ; and to find sufficient stones for the mills ; and
to sustain the mills in great timber, kilns, &c. The lessees toprovide
all else required in the working at their proper cost ; and
to deliver up the mills at the end of the term in as good a condition,
&c. The king to make [rebuild] and sustain the causeway in the
river ; and if the foresaid causeway so by him built be damaged by
misfortune or rage of water, the lessees not to be chargeable with
the damage.
Finally, the king wills that his Justice of Chester or his deputy
shall yearly hold the foresaid court in the foresaid mills during the
whole time aforesaid and whensoever by the
required so to do.
said lessees reasonably
In the hands of the three clerics and the carpenter the
undertaking seems to have prospered. The mills were
kept in constant repair, as is evidenced by various
of the king's precepts for timber from Delaware
Forest for the purpose. The rent of mills and fishery,,
which in 1289, ^^ P^i^ by Richard the Engineer, had
been ;^200 per annum, was now, in 1356, reduced to
Poole's y^iQO. In 1377, however, it was again increased, as
177? /^^6i;8
Hist. Cheshire,
^'^^S'
Text, III. 47,
^'
"
appears in the returns of revenue from the entire royal
earldom of Chester in that year ; the total being
^1,001 3s. 7d.,
towards which the fee-farme of the
city contributed ^100, and that
the river Dee
of "the mills upon
"
^240.
Matthew Haydock was ''clerk of the mills, Chester,.
during the king's pleasure" (1384),
and William
Mareschal ''clerk of the mills of Dee for life "
(1392).
It appears to
that the Black
have been during his tenure of office
Friars of Chester in 1396 were made
*'
tolfre " and " hoper free " at these mills ; a pri^alege
which, it may be added, was extended to the Carme-
lite Friars of Chester, February 13, 1400, in response
to their petition to Henry, Prince of Wales, that they