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Mercurii 18 die Julii Anno Regni Ca∣roli II. Regis 18. 1666.
Ordo Curiae.
THe Right Honourable Edward, Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, and the Honourable Sir Harbottle Grimstone Baronet, Master of the Rolls, taking into their Consideration the manifold disorders, and undue practices which in the late times have crept into the Six Clerks Office, to the great dishonour
of this Court, the obstruction of Ju∣stice, the damage of the Client, and confusion and loss of the Records, and the several ways of redressing the same. And having divers times heard the Six Clerks and their Under-Clerks con∣cerning the settlement by division of Letters, formerly (to this end) order∣ed by the Lord Coventry, late Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and after long deliberation, and several confe∣rences with some of the Reverend Judges, and of the King's learned Councel finding no expedient so equal and effectual for the due filing and easie search of the Records, and the orderly proceedings, and quiet dispatch in all Causes, nor so proper to prevent the mislaying and the imbezling the Re∣cords,* 1.1 and that confusion which is eve∣ry day discovered from thence, to the extream scandal of the Court, and pre∣judice of the Subject, as the reviving and re-establishing the aforesaid settle∣ment: Do hereby Order and Ordain, that the said method be revived and from henceforth observed by the pre∣sent Six Clerks and their Successors, and by their Under-Clerks (viz.) that the receiving, filing, bundling and keeping of all Bills, Answers, Pleadings, and
all Proceedings thereupon, and the ma∣king and expediting of all Exemplifica∣tions, Writs and Copies, of or concern∣cerning the same, be divided among the said Six Clerks and their Successors re∣spectively, by and according to the Letters of the Alphabet in manner fol∣lowing, that is to say, that all Bills, Answers and other Pleadings of Clients in Causes wherein the Plaintiffs, or first Plaintiffs Sirname shall begin with A. B. C. D. F. or Y. and all Proceed∣ings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from henceforth received, filed, bundled and kept by Mr. Pyndar, and Mr. Bluck, or one of them, and their Successors in their Offices respe∣ctively, and by no other. And all Bills, Answers and other Pleadings of Clients in Causes wherein the Plaintiffs, or first Plaintiffs Sirname shall begin with E. G. H. J. K. L. M. N. or O. and all Proceedings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from hence∣forth received, filed, bundled and kept by Sir Cyrill Wych and Mr. Wilkinson, or one of them, and their Successors in their Offices respectively, and by no other. And all Bills, Answers and other Pleadings of Clients, in Causes wherein the Plaintiffs, or first Plaintiffs Sirname
shall begin with P. Q. R. S. T. V. W. X. or L. and all other proceedings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from henceforth received, filed, Bund∣led and kept by Sir John Marsham and Mr. Longville, or one of them, and their Successors respectively, and by no other, in manner as formerly hath been done by the Six Clerks. And that all Cross Bills, Bills of Revi∣ver, and Bills of Review, and all pro∣ceedings thereupon be revived, filed, bundled and kept in the same Division of Letters where the former Suit touch∣ing the same matter began, and not elsewhere; and all Exemplifications, Writs and Copies, of or concerning the same Bills, Answers, Pleadings and Proceedings thereupon, be made and ex∣pedited by them to whom the reviving, filing, bundling and keeping of the Records doth belong, according to the allotments of Letters aforesaid, and by no other. And it is further ordered and ordained, That if at any time here∣after there shall happen any difference to arise betwixt any of the Six Clerks touching any of their Under-Clerks, or touching their Clients or their Causes, or touching the filing of any Bill, An∣swer or Pleading, or other thing ac∣cording
to the division of Letters afore∣said, or any other matters of their Of∣fices, that then the said differences be from time to time examined by the rest of the Six Clerks for the time be∣ing, whom such difference (for the pre∣sent) shall not concern, who are to de∣cide and determine the same, or other∣wise to certifie the true state of the Fact, with their Opinion to the Master of the Rolls. And because it is very manifest that these misdemeanours and enormities are gotten into the Office of the Six Clerks by the liberty and li∣cense which the inferiour Clerks have of late assumed to themselves, and by their withdrawing their Obedience from, and their dependence upon the Masters of the several Offices in which they write, and by receiving too many Clerks of little or no experience into the several Offices. It is likewise fur∣ther ordered and ordained, that every of the Six Clerks shall be limited and stinted to twelve Clerks* 1.2 at the most, to serve immediately under him, whereof fix at the least shall be expert in wri∣ting the Chancery Letter, and every of those twelve shall take a Corporal Oath before the Master of the Rolls not to imbezil, falsifie, corrupt, raze
or deface any Bills, Answers, Plead∣ings, Commissions, Depositions, War∣rants, Decrees, Dismissions or other Re∣cords whatsoever belonging to the High Court of Chancery, and to deli∣ver forthwith unto the Six Clerks re∣spectively, or his Deputy, unopened, all Commissions and Depositions that shall come to their hands, to be kept safely and secretly by the Six Clerk till publi∣cation; and after being copied, forth∣with to return them.
••eceiving; fi∣ling, bundling of Bills, An∣swers, &c. and the making all Exemplificati∣ons, Writs and Copies thereof to be divided amongst the Six Clerks, accord¦ing to the Let∣ters of the Al∣phabet. Vide in∣fra. Feb. 1. 1668. this Order Re∣pealed.
Every Six Clerk to be stinted to 12 Under-Clerks.