AN ORDINANCE made the eighteenth day of July Anno R. R. Caroli II. 18. Annóque D i 1666. 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 Justice 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 concerning the settlement by division of Letters formerly to this end ordered by the Lord Coventry late Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and after long deliberation and several conferences with some of the Reverend Judges and of the King 's learned Council finding no expedient so equal and effectual for the due filing and easy search of the Records and the orderly proceeding and quick dispatch in all causes nor so proper to prevent the miss-laying and imbeziling the Records and that confusion which is every day discovered from thence to the extreme scandal of the Court and prejudice of the Subject as the reviving and re-establishing the foresaid settlement Do hereby ORDER and ORDAIN that the said Method be revived and from henceforth observed by the present Six Clerks and their Successors and by their Under-Clerks Viz. That the receiving filing bundling and keeping of all Bills Answers Plead and all proceedings thereupon and the making and expediting of all Exemplifications Writs and Copies of or concerning the same be divided among the said Six Clerks and their Successors respectively by and according to the letters of the Alphabet in manner following That is to say That all Bills Answers and other Plead of Clients in causes wherein the Plaintiffs or first Plaintiffs Surname shall begin with A B C D F or Y and all proceedings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from henceforth received filled bundled and kept by M r Pindar and M r Bluck or one of them and their Successors in their Offices respectively and by no other And all Bills Answers and other Plead of Clients in causes wherein the Plaintiffs or first Plaintiffs Surname shall begin with E G H I K L M N or O and all proceedings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from henceforth received filled bundled and kept by Sir Cyrill Wyche and M r Wilkinson or one of them and their Successors in their Offices respectively and by no other And all Bills Answers and other Plead of Clients in causes wherein the Plaintiffs or first Plaintiffs Surname shall begin with P Q R S T V W X or Z and all proceedings thereupon in the said Six Clerks Offices be from henceforth received filled bundled and kept by Sir John Marsham and M r Longueville or one of them and their Successors in their Offices respectively and by no other in manner as formerly hath been done by the Six Clerks And that all Cross Bills Bills of Revivour and Bills of Review and all proceedings thereupon be received filled bundled and kept in the same division of letters where the former Suit touching the same matter began and not elsewhere And all Exemplifications Writs and Copies of or concerning the same Bills Answers Plead and proceedings thereupon be made and expedited by them to whom the receiving filing bundling and keeping of the Records doth belong according to the allotment of letters aforesaid and by no other AND it is further Ordered and Ordained That if at any time hereafter 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 Answer or Pleading or other thing according to the division of Letters aforesaid or any other matters of their Offices that then the same differences be from time to time examined by the rest of the Six Clerks for the time being whom such difference for the present shall not concern who are to decide and determine the same or otherwise to certify the true state of the Fact with their Opinions to the Master of the Rolls AND because it is very manifest that these misdemeanours and enormities are got into the Office of the Six Clerks by the liberty and licence which the inferior 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 the receiving too many Clerks of little or no experience into the several Offices it is likewise further Ordered and Ordained that every of the Six Clerks shall be limited and stinted to twelve Clerks at the most to serve immediately under him whereof six at the least shall be expert in writing the Chancery letter And every of those twelve shall take a corporal Oath before the Master of the Rolls not to imbezil falsfie corrupt race or deface any Bills Answers Plead Commissions Depositions Warrants Decrees Dismissions or other Records whatsoever belonging to the high Court of Chancery and to deliver forthwith unto the Six Clerk respectively 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 Publication and after being copied forthwith to return them Clarendon C. Har. Grimstone