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the six clerks were also to attend at Westminster every day in term during the sitting of the court there, to read all deeds, depositions of witnesses, orders, affidavits, and such other matters in causes as should be required by the court to be read; which duty they were to perform by turns, two of them at a time. That it was likewise their duty to examine into all such irregularities in practice, relating to proceedings in their office, as were referred to them by the court; and to certify their opinions therein to the court when required.

That it was likewise their duty to examine and see that the records in all causes ready for hearing were duly filed, and to certify the same to the court, and to present the causes to be set down to be heard; and also to examine the docquets of decrees and dismissions to be presented to the court to be signed in order for inrolment, and to see that the records and orders therein referred to were regularly filed and entered, and to certify the same to the court. That it was likewise their duty, in person, or by one or more sufficient deputy or deputies, to be daily attendant, in their respective offices, except on Sundays and holidays, for the transacting and giving dispatch to the business there. And it was thereby further found, that the sworn clerks were to attend the hearing of all causes wherein they were concerned; and that they were the attornies on the equity side, and had a right to act as solicitors of the court.

The relative situation of the six clerks, and the sixty or sworn clerks, and their several duties, being as before is stated, it is to be observed, that from the time of the ordinance of the 15th June 1668, the six clerks continued to be entitled to receive their proportion of the fees on office copies and other Chancery proceedings, agreeable to the last clause in that ordinance, viz. from the sixty clerks, or sworn clerks, in all causes where they had received the same from their clients; but there is no instance to be found in which a sworn clerk has been compelled by the six clerk to pay any part of such fees before he has really received the whole thereof; and though [549] the six clerks have at various times attempted to overturn this practice, and in order thereto, to stop the records and proceedings in their offices until their proportions of such fees were paid, yet, on all these occasions, the six clerks have been ordered by the court (upon application being made in that behalf) to file the records, sign certificates, and do the other duties of their office, leaving them afterwards to recover their fees in such manner as they might be advised.

Divers instances of this sort appear by orders made by Sir John Trevor, Sir Joseph Jekyll, Sir John Strange, Sir Thomas Clarke, and Sir Thomas Sewell, during the times of their being respectively Master of the Rolls, several of which are after mentioned; and so the practice and usage of the court stood, in regard to the fees of the six clerks and the sworn clerks, till the month of July 1785, when, in consequence of an agreement which the then six clerks, who are the present respondents, (except the respondent Walden Henry Hanmer, who has since been appointed to the office of a six clerk, in the room of William Mitford, Esq. deceased, who was party to the said agreement,) took upon themselves to enter into, an order was made by his Honour the then Master of the Rolls, whereby he directed the said agreement to be carried into execution; and by such agreement and order, the practice and usage of the court was altered in the particulars mentioned in the said agreement, the said agreement and order being severally of the respective dates, and in the words and figures following:

2d May 1785. Articles of agreement of six parts, indented and made this second day of May, in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc. and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, between Samuel Reynardson, Esquire, one of the six clerks of the King's Court of Chancery, of the first part; William Mitford, Esquire, one other of the said six clerks, of the second part; Christian Zincke, Esquire, one other of the said six clerks, of the third part; Nehemiah Winter, one other of the said six clerks, of the fourth part; William Luther Sewell, Esquire, one other of the said six clerks, of the fifth part; and John Kipling, Esquire, the other of the said six clerks, of the sixth port, as followeth; to wit, It is hereby covenanted and agreed, by and between all and every the said parties to these presents, and the said Samuel Reynardson, William Mitford, Christian Zincke, Nehemiah Winter, William Luther Sewell, and John Kipling, for themselves severally and respectively, and for their