[290] Cal. of Close Rolls, 1272-9, p. 392.
[291] Cal. of Close Rolls, 1296-1302, p. 238.
[292] In the account of the Prioress of Delapré already quoted occurs the item “Receyvid for ij standyngs at Prayffayre at ij tymes vs.” Dugdale, Mon. III, p. 359. The fair time was the feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. (Sept. 8th) and the account for another year shows that over £1 was spent on the convent and visitors at this time. The accounts for 1490-3 include payments for making trestles and forms in connection with the fair. V.C.H. Herts. IV, p. 430 (note 31) and p. 439 (note 39). The nuns of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, were granted by Stephen a fair, which was afterwards known as Garlick fair, and was held in their churchyard for two days on August 14th and 15th. They did not receive much from it; in 1449 the tolls amounted only to 5s. 2d.; moreover they had to give the toll collectors 6d. for a wage and they evidently made the occasion one for entertainment, for they hired an extra cook for 3d. “to help in the kitchin at the fair time.” Gray, Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge, pp. 49-50.
[293] The Valor Eccles. occasionally notes income derived from fairs. Tarrant Keynes had £2 from the fair at Woodburyhill, Shaftesbury had £2. 4s. 6d. from Shaftesbury fair, Malling received £3. 6s. 8d. from Malling market and fair and £3 from a market “cum terris et tenementis” at Newheth, Blackborough had £1 from Blackborough fair and Elstow had £7. 12s. 0d. from Elstow fair. Valor Eccles. I, pp. 265, 276, 106; II, p. 205; III, p. 395; IV, p. 188.
[294] The mill belonging to the home farm would be in the charge of a miller, who was one of the hired servants of the house and was paid a regular stipend. Other mills would probably be farmed out. The nuns of Catesby had two mills, which brought them in 12s. and 22s. a year respectively; one, a wind-mill, was probably farmed, but the water-mill was in charge of Thomas Milner, at a wage of 20s. and his servant, who was paid 2s. 6d. The nuns also received tolls of grain in kind from the mill; a certain proportion of which was handed over to the miller for his household. The mill does not seem to have paid very well, for a heavy list of “Costs of the Mill,” amounting to 31s. 6d. appears in the account; it includes the wages of the miller and his boy and payments to a carpenter for making the mill-wheel for seventeen days and in damming the mill-tail and buying shoes with nails for the mill horses. Baker, op. cit. I, pp. 279, 281. At Swaffham Bulbeck the “Firma Molendini” brought in £3. 14s. 4d. Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 457. Malling Abbey had a fulling-mill. Valor Eccles. I, p. 276.
[295] For instance in Hone, The Manor and Manorial Records (1906).
[296] Coulton, Med. Garn. p. 591.
[297] Baker, op. cit. I, pp. 279, 282.
[298] V.C.H. Norfolk, II, p. 370.
[299] For examples of mortuary law-suits, receipts and results, see Coulton, Med. Garn., pp. 561-6. On the whole subject of mortuaries and the unpopularity which they entailed upon the church, see Coulton, Medieval Studies, no. 8 (“Priests and People before the Reformation,” pp. 3-7).