34 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

materials, paper, and record books and the hire of a register, who
was called Clerk of the Secretary's Office and of the Provincial
Court. During the earlier proprietary period this clerk received
some part, often a third, of the office fees. Under royal admini-
stration he acquired instead an annual salary. ¹⁹ The clerk in turn
employed and paid such "clerks assistant " as he might require. ²⁰

There are many contemporary estimates of the value of this
office which, next to the chief executive's place, was the most
lucrative in Maryland. The income may have been £ 400 sterling
in 1672 and £ 1000 in 1725. ²¹ Edmund Jenings, as Deputy Secre-
tary, earned about £ 800 sterling in 1745 and £ 1274. 17. 3 currency
in 1754. ²² The average revenue from 1745 through 1752 was
£781 sterling, and that from 1763 through 1769 was £1116
sterling. ²³

All of these figures represent gross income. To determine the
net income one must deduct that particular salary payable at the
time to the principal and the office expenses which, in the eigh-
teenth century, may have amounted to about £ 200 a year. ²⁴

In 1770 the Deputy Secretary, Commissary General, and Judges
of the Land Office proposed to give up all fees and perquisites
in exchange for a salary of £ 600 sterling apiece. This offer the
Lower House refused, partly because they thought the sum too
high, partly because they feared that salaried officers might neglect
their duties. ²⁵

¹⁹ Cf. Instructions to Daniel Jenifer, Feb. 18, 1667/8, and commission to John
Blomfield, May 1, 1669 (Archives, V, 24, 49); and Gov. John Hart's account of
the Maryland offices in 1715 (Ibid., XXV, 320). In 1755 the Clerk of the
Secretary's Office seems to have been receiving a part of the fees: cf. Cecilius
Calvert to Horatio Sharpe, May 20, 1755 (Ibid., XXXI, 481).

²⁰ Horatio Sharpe to Hugh Hamersley, July 25, 1768 (Ibid., XIV, 517).

²¹ Charles Calvert to Lord Baltimore, April 26, 1672 (Calvert Papers. I, 257);
Archives, XXXV, 235.

²² These figures are derived from " A List of the Several Offices... in Mary-
land, with their Revenues, " Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series I,
vol. VII (1801), 202-03, and "A List of Civil Officers in Maryland, 1754, "
Portfolio No. 3, folder 30 (Hall of Records). The former list bears no date, but
as it refers to thirteen counties, it must have been prepared between 1742 and
1748. The decline in the Deputy Secretary's income between 1725 and 1745 may
be attributable to the setting up of the Judgeship of the Land Office as a separate
place of profit in 1738.

²³ These averages are derived from figures in tobacco presented by committees
of the Lower House on Oct. 23, 1753, and Oct. 3, 1770 (Archives, L, 183; LXII,
218). The latter list was published in the Maryland Gazette, Nov. 29, 1770.

²⁴ Other contemporary estimates, of doubtful accuracy, may be found in Cecilius
Calvert to Horatio Sharpe, Dec. 12, 1754, and Dec. 2, 1760; and Horatio Sharpe
to Board of Trade, 1761 (Archives, XXXI, 475; IX, 467; XXXII, 27).

²⁵ Ibid. _t LXII, 353, 368, 390, 395. a. Charles Carroll of Annapolis to Charles