DAILY Experience sheweth, that the Want of Water-Mills is the true
Cause that Husbandry in Tilling the Ground, and for Sowing of
Wheat and Barley, is but coldly prosecuted, though the Advantage
thereby in raising the Stock of neat Cattle be great; and forasmuch
as the
most Part of the Places fit for setting up of Water-Mills, are already
in the
Hands of Persons under Age, or unable to be at the Charge of Building
a
Water-Mill, or else such as are wilfully obstinate in forbidding and
hindering
such persons as would purchase the said Places fit for building Water-Mills,
and set them up, to the Increase of our Trade and Navigation; much
to the
public Damage of this Province:
II. Be it Enacted
by
the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice
and Consent of her Majesty's Governor, Council and Assembly of this
Province,
and the Authority of the same, That if any Person or Persons,
from and
after the Publication hereof, shall desire to set up a Water-Mill upon
any
Land next adjoining to any Run of Water within this Province, not being
the proper Possession or Free-hold of such Person or Persons, nor Leased
to
them, to the Intent thereon to set a Water-Mill, they shall purchase
a Writ
out of Chancery, directed to the Sheriff of the COunty where such Land
lieth,
requiring him, by the oath of Twelve Men of his County to inquire what
Damage it would be to her Majesty, or others, to have a Mill set up
in such
Place as aforesaid; the Form of which Writ followeth, viz.
" ANNE, by the Grace of GOD, of England, Scotland, France and
Ireland,
" Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c.
" To the Sheriff of A . . . . . . . County, Greeting.
" We command you, that by the Oaths of Twelve honest and lawful Men
of the
" County, by whom the Truth of the matter may be better known, you
diligently
" inquire, if it be to the Damage of us, or others, if we grant
N.N.
of N.
" County, Twenty Acres of Land, lying at N. in the County
aforesaid,
viz. Ten
" Acres on one Side such Run, and Ten Acres on the other Side of
such Run of
" Water, together with Liberty to take, fall, cut down and carry
away, either
" by Land or Water, any Wood or Timber fir for building a Mill,
other than
" Timber fit to split into Clap-boards, upon any of the Lands next
adjoining to
" the said Twenty Acres of Land lying on each Side of the said Run
of Water,
" at N.N. aforesaid, in the County aforesaid: And if
it to be to the Damage an
" prejudice of us, or others, then to what Damage and Prejudice
of us, and to
" what Damage and Prejudice of others, and of whom, and in what
manner, and
" how, and of what Value they are by the Year, according to the
true Value thereof
" now, before any further Improvement of the said Twenty acres of
Land,
" and who are the present Possessors of the said Twenty Acres of
Land, and what
" Lands and Tenements remain to the present Possessor, over the
said Twenty Acres:
" And if the said Land remaining to the present Possessors, over
the said
" Twenty Acres, will suffice to uphold their Manor, viz.
the Sixth part of their
" Manor allotted by the Conditions of Plantations, for the Demesne,
as before the
" Alienation; so as the County, by the Alienation aforesaid, in
Default of the present
" Possession, more than was wont, be not charged and grieved:
And the Inquisition
" thereupon, openly and distinctly made to us, in our Chancery,
under the
" Seal and the Seals of them by whom it was made, without Delay
send, &c."
Upon Return of which Writ, in case the Person or Persons, who by the
said
Inquest shall be found to be true Owners and Possessors of the land
fit
to build a Mill upon, shall refuse to build a Mill thereon within One
Year,
|
Preamble.
Writ of Ad
quod Damnum
for Land to
set a Water-Mill
on.
Form of the
Writ.
20 Acres of
Land, viz. 10
Acres on one
Side, and 10
Acres on the
other Side of
the Run of
Water.
In case the
Owner of the
Land refuse
to build a
Mill thereon. |
