516 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
any way the suggestion or project of the Corporation, though built 
under cover of their Water Act. 
Now the water was "brought in" in April, 1591, and some of 
the mills were completed by Michaelmas, when Drake "grounde 
Corne w^ theym." A year had hardly elapsed ere they became the 
subject of the controversy that in one form or other has continued 
to the present day. The MSS. of the House of Lords contain 
under date March 20th, 159f, the draft of "An Act for the ex- 
planation and true interpretation of a statute made in the 27th 
year of the Queens Majesty's reign, intituled 'An Act for the pre- 
servation of the haven of Plymouth."' This sets forth that the 
mayor and commonalty having been authorised to make a trench 
or water-course to supply the town and shipping with water, had 
turned it to their own profit by erecting corn mills on it, to the 
damage of the millowners on the Mew als Mevie. Order there- 
fore to be made for the removal of the mills within two years. 
This bill is endorsed with the dates of proceedings thereon in 
the House of Commons ; but it is not mentioned in the Journals 
of the Lords, and the Commons Journals for the time are wanting. 
It seems to have passed the Commons, however, not only from the 
endorsements, but from the fact that, like other bills sent up from 
the Lower House, it is amongst the papers of the Lords. Having 
been brought up, it must for some reason or other have been 
abandoned. 
Now while this bill was passing through the House of Commons, 
Drake sat there as member for Plymouth, and Sir Simonds d'Ewes 
gives the following statement of his connection with the measure : 
[Monday, the 19th of February, 159f.] "The bill for the 
bringing of fresh water to the town of Stonehouse * was, upon the 
second reading, committed unto Sir Francis Drake, Mr. Edgecombe, 
Sir Thomas Conisby, Mr. Dalton, and others, who were appointed 
to meet to-morrow at two of the clock in the Afternoon in the 
Exchequer Chamber. 
* When the success of the Plymouth scheme had been established, an Act 
was obtained for the supply of Stonehouse with fresh water, the needs of the 
shipping being alleged as a leading cause. This act is a private one, but 
there is a draft of it also among the MSS. of the House of Lords. It is 
stated that the intention was to bring the water from Millbrook ; that is, 
the stream flowing down by Houndiscombe to Penny comequick, 1 which 
1 Pennycomequick is the Keltic, and Millbrook the Saxon name, of the same place ; and 
the former being more distinctive has survived. 
