SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



They were forbidden to make their own ironwork, but in return they could 

 force the smith to be present at fixed times to do what they wanted. 



Not the least important person in the village was the miller. The mill, 

 worked either by water, or more rarely by wind, belonged to the lord, and 

 all tenants of the lord had to grind their corn there, and to pay a portion for 

 the service, which varied with their status. Some free tenants might get 

 exemption ; others ground, but only paid perhaps -^-^ of the produce ^ ; the 

 chekermen paid from y^ to 5^,^ the burgesses in some burgs paid y\,' but 

 the bondager paid J^.* We find that some mills had been farmed out as 

 early as Boldon Book. Sometimes the whole village was the firmar, but 

 generally we find the mill in the hands of one or two men who, for the length 

 of their lease, had all the rights of the lord. Besides being compelled to 

 grind at the mill the tenants had to thatch it, to clean out the mill-pond and 

 stream, and to carry millstones when required.* Sometimes the free tenants 

 helped in the work, but their obligations are not very clear.* Hand-mills 

 were forbidden to the tenants, but probably were often used. If the miller 

 was cheated he seems to have often been a rascal in his turn, and some of the 

 vills made desperate efforts to free themselves from the obligations of mill 

 suit.' Technically the obligation lasted as long as the mill worked, but early 

 in the seventeenth century the Durham Chancery Court decided that pur- 

 chased grain was exempt. The Westoe jury in 1662 apparently strained 

 this decision and declared that no inhabitant of Shields or Panns need grind 

 at the mill unless he pleased.' The local mill is now scarce in the county, 

 and foreign wheat has largely displaced the native product. 



Besides corn-mills we read of fulling-mills, each one of which served a 

 large area. These were used in the manufacture of local homespun cloth. 

 At Oxenhall we learn from Boldon Book there was also a horse-mill which 

 an ex-dreng was allowed to have free from suit or work at the mill. In 

 connexion with the mill it might be as well to recall that the famous 

 Newcastle grindstones of the Middle Ages really came from the Palatinate. 

 They were gained from the quarries about Gateshead and Heworth, and we 

 find the prior granting men licences to work and export them outside the 

 prior's territory.' 



In later times the ordinary village officials shrank into comparative 

 insignificance before the constable, who became the henchman of the justice 

 of the peace and the representative in the vill of the central government. 

 The bishop introduced into the Palatinate in some form or other the reforms 

 and legislation of the central Parliament. The Assize of Clarendon was put 

 into force together with similar legislation, and we find the usual machinery 

 of justice and police at work in Durham in the thirteenth century. For 

 instance, each ward had a coroner, and often a sub-coroner, and justices who 

 were commissioned by the bishop to see that the various royal statutes were 

 carried out. In i 3 1 2 we find Bishop Kellaw appointing a Custos Pacis,^° and 



' The rate varied, and a free tenant at Merrington paid ^^ ; Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 35 

 ' Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 82 </. 129. ' Feodarium (Surtees Soc. Iviii), 199 n. 



* Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 1 34. 



' Sunday was generally the day chosen for this work. Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 103. 

 ^ Cf. Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 43, 51, 61, 73 and 103. ' e.g. Ibid. 119. 



* I am indebted to R. Blair, Esq. F.S.A. of Harton, for transcripts of several rolls now lost. 



° Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 79. '° Reg. Pal. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), i, i So. 



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