THE TWO SECRETARIES 33

a tenth of all the county clerkships, and his successors followed
this example. As these offices were worth annually, at a modest
computation, from £ 80 to £ 250 sterling apiece, the total gratuity
amounted to a substantial sum. For instance, in 1754 Secretary
Edmund Jenings received from this source £ 438. 15. 11 1/4 currency,
or about £ 230 sterling. ¹⁴

Such a system of sale and gratuity proved a minor annoyance
to the people. In the earlier proprietary period, and under crown
rule, it was the sale of offices which occasioned protest, because
the practice brought in unqualified incumbents who, because of
their investment, felt obliged to overcharge the people. ¹⁵ Under
the restored proprietary little was said about the sale of clerkships,
as such, but in 1728 a committee of the Lower House protested
the incompetence of some appointees. ¹⁶ It was perhaps in a hope
of preventing these complaints that Baltimore required his chief
executive to approve all such appointments. Again in 1750 the
Lower House inquired into the origin of the Secretary's tenth of
the clerks' fees, but they apparently were satisfied with that
officer's explanation. ¹⁷

Out of his gross income the Secretary in Maryland had to pay
a salary and the routine expenses of his office. John Lewger's
successors seem to have paid him an annual sum until his death
in 1665; and from an uncertain date until then or later they paid
a saddle to Cecilius Langford. ¹⁸ After 1705/6, when he became
a deputy, the Secretary in Maryland had to support his principal.
Of this salary more anon. We shall see that it was probably
£200 sterling a year until Edmund Jenings's appointment in
1732/3, £ 100 thereafter through 1751, £ 50 in 1752 through
1754, and then £ 200 until the Revolution.

The routine expenses of the office included purchase of writing

¹⁴ Portfolio No, 3, folder 30 (Hall of Records).

¹⁵ See the " Additionall Articles... against the Lord Baltemore and his Depu-
ties, " 1690, in Archives, VIII, 219. On the behavior of Secretary Lawrence and
the protests of Assembly and Council see the references in note 11, above.

¹⁶ Ibid., XXXVI, 259. See also Samuel Ogle to Lord Baltimore, Jan. 10, 1731/2
(Calvert Papers, H, 83) and the case of John Leeds, May, 1739 (Archives, XL,
205, 206, 288, 300). In 1773 Charles Carroll of Annapolis was still complaining
about the quality of the county clerks (Maryland Historical Magazine, XV [1920],
285).

¹⁷ Archives, XLVI, 385-91. Cf. Daniel Dulany, "The Case of Mr. Dennis
Dulany, " 1760 (Dulany Papers).

¹⁸ Cf. Charles Calvert to Lord Baltimore, April 27, 1664 (Calvert Papers I.
MHS " Fund Pub. No. 28, " [1889] 231).