56 HIS LORDSHIP'S PATRONAGE

his principal. It is clear, however, that the former, and probably
the latter also, demanded certain customary fees, which the Lower
House was unable to prevent their taking. ²⁵ The salary of the
Prerogative Clerk amounted in 1715 to at least 20, 000 pounds
of tobacco, or about £ 80 or £ 90 sterling a year. It was valued
at £ 80 sterling in 1745, and it may have reached £ 100 in late
colonial times. ²⁶ The Register in Chancery probably got about the
same amount. The Prerogative Office was to be omitted from
the Constitution of 1776 and abolished the following year.

The Clerk of the High Court of Appeals, the Clerk of the
Admiralty Court, and the two Clerks of Assize Courts had very
small incomes from fees established by law. These offices were
commonly filled by persons with other and more valuable
clerkships.

Prior to the establishment of royal government there was a
rapid turnover in all offices, and this was especially true of the
clerks' places. Thereafter long tenure became the rule. Thus in
the first sixty years of its history, until 1693, the Council had
fifteen successive clerks; but in the eighty-three years thereafter
only nine. Of these John Ross served thirty-five years. Similarly
Michael Macnemara was Clerk of the Lower House for twenty-
three years; and three different clerks served over ten years in
the Secretary's office. ²⁷

2. COUNTY CLERKS.

These officers, appointed by the Secretary in Maryland, and
commonly better paid than the provincial clerks, were supported
chiefly by fees. Such charges, first established in the general fee
proclamation of August 2, 1642, were for over thirty-five years
the same as those allowed the Secretary. ²⁸ By an act of November,

"On the customary fees of the Prerogative Clerk see Ibid., XXXV, 313-26;
XLVI, 588. The Lower House sought to prevent the taking of such extra-legal
fees by inserting certain oaths into the Inspection Law of 1747. But as the act
provided no penalty for refusal of the oaths, the Governor had no means of
enforcing this part of it. The matter was argued at some length in the session of
May and June, 1751.

²⁶ Ibid., XXV, 321; IX, 4l4; see also the estimate cited in note 15 above.

²⁷ On the eve of the Revolution the chief provincial clerks were James Brooks
(Council and Upper House), John Duckett (Lower House), Reverdy Ghiselin (Sec-
retary's Office), Elie Vallette (Prerogative Office), and James Brooks (Chancery).
I, 162.