The Lower House. 177

You Thomas King do swear, that you will faithfully, diligently,
and honestly discharge the Office of Serjeant at Arms to the Lower
House of Assembly; and you shall not disclose or reveal the Secrets
thereof. So help you God.
You Thomas Sparrow do swear, that you will faithfully, dili-
gently, and honestly discharge the Office of Door-Keeping to the
Lower House of Assembly; and that you shall not disclose or reveal
the Secrets thereof. So help you God.
Dr. Carroll, from the Committee appointed to search in the Offices
for Precedents in the Journals, relating to the manner of choosing
and appointing Clerks, delivers to Mr. Speaker the following Report :

To the Honourable the House of Delegates.

In Obedience to an Order of your honourable House, we have
made search in the Offices for Precedents in the Journals of Assem-
bly, relating to the Manner of choosing and appointing of Clerks;
and do find, that in a Trunk in the Provincial Office are kept, in
loose Paper-Books, Journals of the Assembly, from September Ses-
sion, 1664, until the Year 1705, which are imperfect, some being
lost; and others partly torn away; out of which, in the best manner
we could, we have made the following Abstracts; viz.

L. H. J.
Liber No. 46
May 10

We find, that in September Session, 1664, William Bretton acted
as Clerk to the Lower House; but that Journal not beginning with a
new Assembly, no mention is made how, or in what manner he was
chosen or qualified.
In April Session, 1666, is the following Entry; ' And being come
into their House, they elected Mr. William Bretton Clerk of the
Lower House of Assembly.'
We cannot find any Journal from 1666 'til 1671, at which Time
Robert Carville acted as Clerk; but the former Part of that Session
being lost, we cannot discover how, or in what manner, the said
Carville was chosen or qualified.
In May Session, 1676, we find the following Entry: 'Mr.
Speaker, in Behalf, and by Order of the whole House, humbly re-
quests of his Lordship Liberty to chuse their Clerk; which his Lord-
ship grants them as a particular Favour to them, and not to be con-
strued as their Right to elect; but that his Lordship may appoint
whom he pleases to be Clerk of this House. They elect Robert
Ridgely to be their Clerk; his Lordship approves of him, and they
retire to their own House.'
In the Journal of 1694 we find, that the Speaker and the House
desire that Cleyborn Lomax may be admitted their Clerk; which was
granted, and a Commission given him under the Lesser Seal of this
Province; and at the same Time had administred to him the Oaths

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