54 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

ment this allowance became a fixed salary of 12, 000 pounds of
tobacco, about £ 50 sterling, a year. That of the Clerk of the
Upper House remained at this figure until 1747 when it was
reduced twenty percent. ¹³ Moreover, as this salary was raised in
the public levy, it could be paid only on passage of the journal of
accounts. Consequently a quarrel over paying the Councillors,
which delayed passage of the journal from 1747 to 1756, and a
similar dispute over the Clerk of the Council's salary, which
delayed another passage until 1766, held up the pay of the Clerk
of the Upper House.

In the eighteenth century his fees amounted to about £ 75
currency (£ 38 or £ 40 sterling) a year. These, along with his
salary of about £ 50, made up an annual income of about £ 88
or £90 sterling. ¹⁴ The combined offices of Clerk of the Council
and Clerk of the Upper House were consequently worth, together,
about £ 180 a year. ¹⁵ However we have seen that payment of the
two salaries, amounting to over half this sum, was in later colonial
times twice long delayed.

Prior to 1682 the Clerk of the Lower House, who in 1650 had
succeeded the Clerk of Assembly, was elected by the delegates
and admitted to office by the Governor. Lord Baltimore appointed
clerks in 1682 and 1683, and the Deputy Governors appointed
one in 1686. At the establishment of royal government the former
practice of election by the delegates and admission by the Gover-
nor was permanently restored. ¹⁶

Certain fees were bestowed on the Clerk of the Lower House
in October, 1640, and April, 1684. ¹⁷ On the organization of crown

of tobacco a day from two days before to two days after each session. This
allowance seems to have been extended to both clerks on division of the Assembly
into two Houses in 1650.

¹³ Ibid., XXV, 320.

¹⁴ John Ross received this amount as Clerk of the Upper House in 1754 (Port-
folio No. 3, folder 30, Hall of Records).

¹⁵ An estimate of about 1745 rates this combined income at £150 sterling
(Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series I, vol. VII [1801], 202-03).

¹⁶ See the report on this matter, May 24, 1749, in Archives, XLVI, '187-203. We
should note that the Governor did appoint Christopher Gregory in Oct., 1698.
On two occasions, in May, 1692, and Sept., 1708, the Lower House refused the
Governor's nominee and chose their own clerk, whom the Governor then confirmed.
At the session of May 9-11, 1749, the delegates denied the Governor's right to
approve their nominee, whereupon Ogle prorogued the Assembly for two weeks.
On reassembling the Lower House voted by a small majority to ask the Governor's
approbation of their clerk.

¹⁷ Ibid., I, 90; XIII, 42-43.