Building lease for a mill at Eling, Hampshire
The manor of Eling, Hampshire, formed part of the original endowment Winchester College in 1385. A manorial corn-mill had anciently stood on a causeway crossing a tidal inlet at the head of Southampton Water, and the mill-wheels were driven by the ebb and flow of the tide to and from a reservoir formed by the causeway. This causeway and mill had long been in ruin and it was not until about 1415 that the Warden and Fellows, as Lords of the Manor, began to seek a means of arranging for rebuilding (T. F. Kirby, Annals Winchester College, (1892), 186-7). The building lease granted survives as an original and as a counterpart, the date being given as Christmas Day 1418 in the counterpart but as 1417 over an erasure in the lease (Winchester College Muniments nos. 26454-55). Below is an English abstract from the Latin original. [Eling Tide Mill was rebuilt again subsequently is still working today.]
This indenture made between Robert Thurbern Warden of the College called
Seint Marie College of Wynchestre
near the City of Winchester on the one
part and Thomas Midlyngton burgess of the town of Southampton on the other part
witnesses that the foresaid Warden by assent and consent of the fellows and
scholars of the same College has let granted and demised to the foresaid Thomas
all the site or ground with the pond and fishing adjoining on which of old the
mill of Eling was set to have and to hold the whole ... to the foresaid Thomas
his heirs and assigns from the day of the making of these presents to the end
of the term of fifty years then next following ... And the foresaid Thomas his
heirs or executors upon the said site or ground shall cause to be made anew at
their own costs and expenses within two years now next following a good and
competent watermill with all and singular necessaries that belong and are
needful to such a mill together with a good and sufficient house competently
covered with sclattes shingels or reede
the foundations and walls of
which mill on all sides shall be of hewn stones sufficiently laid and set with
lime and sand both inside and out which walls shall be of competent thickness
and so high that the sea at full flood shall not overflow the foresaid walls
Rendering thence yearly after the first year of the foresaid term of fifty
years to the foresaid Warden and his successors at the feast of the Lord's
Nativity 13 shillings and 4 pence during the foresaid term And the foresaid
Warden or his successors shall pay to the same Thomas his heirs or executors in
aid of the making of the foresaid works 20 marks [£13.6s.8d.] within the four
first years after the building and final construction of the mill and of the
foresaid works namely in each year at the feast of the Lord's Nativity 5 marks
sterling without further delay and to this the foresaid Warden binds himself
and his successors by these presents the which mill with all its necessaries
when it shall have been built the foresaid Thomas his heirs and executors or
assigns shall well and competently sustain maintain and repair from year to
year and from time to time at their own costs and expenses during the foresaid
term of fifty years and at the end of the same term shall render it up well and
competently repaired with all its necessaries in good and competent state so
that it may in all likelihood last for seven years then immediately following
after the said term of fifty years le Goynggere
[going gear] through
sudden fire hostile invasion and reasonable use however excepted And if it
shall happen that the foresaid rent ... should be in arrear wholly or in part
for twenty-six weeks after the foresaid feast of the Nativity ... and shall be
publicly demanded or the repair and due maintenance of the said mill with all
its necessaries for twenty-six weeks after being required ... then it shall be
lawful for the said Warden ... to re-enter ... and take back into his hands and
possess it in peace this lease notwithstanding And the foresaid Warden and his
successors warrant to the foresaid Thomas ... the foresaid site or ground with
the pond and fishing adjoining ... against all people during the foresaid term
Moreover the foresaid Thomas considering that a certain causeway and bridges in
the same causeway for footmen and horsemen built of old lying between Eling and
Totton has long been broken down and left in disrepair by the flow of the sea
and by great storms to the serious damage of the people there passing across
whose building and repair as it is said were wont to be made by the alms of the
people of that country from a time beyond memory has to the honour of God by
reason of charity of his own motion on behalf of the salvation of his soul and
of the soul of Margaret late his wife and of the souls of their parents friends
and benefactors granted and promised to make anew and repair the foresaid
Causeway sufficiently for footmen and horsemen within two years next following
after the date of these presents without placing timber in the same unless in
places where timber must needs be placed so that the said Causeway according to
human discretion shall be likely to last for a hundred years now to come
Provided only that the workmen and craftsmen hired by the foresaid Thomas to
make the foresaid works of the mill and of the foresaid Causeway be not
arrested by the officers of the lord King or hindered or removed from that work
and he shall not be able to find other workmen and craftsmen to make and
complete those works within the foresaid two years from this cause then the
same Thomas shall make and in all things complete the foresaid works in as
short a time as he can And the foresaid Warden has granted for himself and his
successors to the foresaid Thomas ... in aid of the repair and making of the
foresaid Mill and Causeway licence to dig and take clay and sand sufficient
within the soil of the manor of Eling where it may seem most convenient to the
foresaid Thomas
In witness of which to the part of this indenture remaining with the foresaid Warden the foresaid Thomas has set his seal and because the seal of the foresaid Thomas is to many unknown the seal of the Mayoralty of the town of Southampton at the special request of the same Thomas is set to the same part and to the part of this indenture remaining with the foresaid Thomas the foresaid Warden by the assent and consent of the foresaid fellows and scholars has set their common seal to these presents Given in the foresaid College on the feast of the Lord's Nativity in the year of the reign of King Henry the fifth after the conquest of England the sixth and A. D. 1418.
Reproduced from John H. Harvey, Sources for the History of Houses, British Records Association (1972), pp.48-50.