1) In the early history of the manor, tenants were obliged to have their corn ground at the lord’s mill, and multure was a toll in kind, paid to the miller.
The rate varied from one lordship to another: in 1368 for example, it was paid in Habton near Malton ‘at the twentieth vessel’. In New Malton the procedure was complicated: c.1450 when j qwharter wheytt is sald for iiijs than schall your corne be multyrd at the xvj vessel, and qwhen j qwharter qwheytt is sold for iiijs vjd and mor to it come to vjs than the corn schall be multeryd at the xx vessel, and qwhen j qwharter qwheytt is sold for vjs then ... at the xxiiij vessel. Other Yorkshire references include: 1525 takeyng bot after the rate of xviij stroke oon stroke for thair multer, Linthwaite
1527 shall have ther corne grownd mouter free when the mylne of Edyngham goith, Yedingham
1546 Item to Thomas my brother a bushel of multer corne, Otley
1614 for the clark of the market my mowter dishe, iiijd, Brandsby
1642 very near sixe peckes of meale if the corne bee dry, or els the fault is in the Miller that taketh more mowter then is his due, Elmswell. It was occasionally used as a verb: 1590-2 they shall … grinde all their Corne … at the said Mill called Brighouse Mill, and be multured after the Thirtieth vessel. The miller kept this corn in the mill, at least temporarily, in a wooden ark or barrel: 1684 one barrel to put multer in, Whitley
1714 a moulter ark, Whitley
1739 two mulcture arks, East Riddlesden. The multure dish was a vessel in which the toll-corn was collected: 1572-3 Item Mr Fulwood for a molter dish in his mill not sealed vjd, Doncaster. It served as a measure locally and was frequently mentioned in by-laws. The miller at Boroughbridge Great Mill ‘showed his Moulter Dish to the homage’ in 1639 and they confirmed that ‘he had used no other dish’. In 1650, the farmers of Tong mills were ordered to show theire moulter dishes to be examined whether they be agreeable to the custome of this mannour.