i3o SERVILE BURDENS
manorial dependents: he seizes upon the fact that men must
grind their corn in order to make bread, and so he insists on it
being ground (at a price) at his mill.
The mill, therefore, became a valuable part of his income, and
is frequently mentioned as a separate (and considerable) item
when the value of a manor is being assessed. When, for example,
in 1185, the Templars made a survey of all their lands in England,
one of the seven headings of their enquiry concerned their mills,
for, as the editor of the volume says:
These small and numerous manorial corn mills, mainly worked by
water power, were not the least valuable part of the Templars'
property. They ground the corn of a fairly extensive district and of a
considerable population, and their close concentration in the hands of
the lords of the manor, on demesne, shows that the Templars early
appreciated the financial importance of seigneurial monopolies.1
Miss Lees is here actually referring only to the Essex properties
of the Templars, but her remarks are a fair comment on their
whole policy, and indeed on that of all medieval lords who had
mills on their manors.
Since the mill was of such financial importance it was necessary
for the lord to see that its business was ample and that it was not
threatened by any rivals. This was achieved mainly by an in-
sistence that the unfree must bring their corn to the manorial
mill to be ground. This duty is constantly expressly stated, and as
constantly the Court Rolls show men being fined for attempting
to avoid their obligations. Thus the men on the Ramsey manors
of Broughton, Wardeboys, Caldecot, Woodhurst and Waldhurst
are all forced to bring their corn to Broughton2 where the Abbot
has a mill; or, as is said on another manor of this Abbey: "All the
tenants owe suit to the mill, whereunto they shall send their
corn----If any tenant be convicted of having failed to render suit
to the lord's mill, he shall give,sixpence before judgment; or, if
he have gone to judgment [i.e. if the matter has come before the
Manor Court], he shall give twelvepence."3
1 Templars Records, LXXIX. For comparative value of mill and total value
of manor, sec Wore. Priory Reg, xiv; Yorks Inquis. I, 213, 222, 245; and
Savine, English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution, iz6ff.
2 Ramsey Cart.i, 333. Cf. Wore. Priory Reg. 32, where three vills have to
mill at Bradewas.
8 Ibid. I, 473. Cf. I, 302; Durham Halmote Rolls, 33, 40, 160, 184.