Clerk

In Commercial Law. A person in the employ of a merchant, who attends only to a part of his business, while the merchant himself superintends the whole. He differs from a factor in this, that the latter wholly supplies the place of his principal in respect to the property consigned to him. Pardes- A general name for salesmen, bookkeepers, amanuenses, and other employees of that class. A person employed in an oflfice, public or private, for keeping records or accounts. In Ecclesiastical Law. An individual who is attached to the ecclesiastical state, and has submitted to the tonsure. One who has been ordained. 1 Bl. Comm. 388. A clergyman. 4 Bl. Comm. 367.

In Commercial Law. A person in the employ of a merchant, who attends only to a part of his business, while the merchant himself superintends the whole. He differs from a factor in this, that the latter wholly supplies the place of his principal in respect to the property consigned to him. Pardessus, Droit Comm. n. 38; 1 Chit. Pr. SO. In Ecclesiastical Law. Any individual who is attached to the ecclesiastical state and has submitted to the tonsure. One who has been ordained. 1 Bla. Com. 3SS. A clergyman. 4 public or private, for keeping records or accounts. His business is to write or register, in proper form, the transactions of the tribunal or body to which he belongs. Some clerks, however, have little or no writing to do in their offices: as the clerk of the market, whose duties are confined chiefly to superintending the markets. This is a common use of the word at the present day, and is also a very ancient signification, being derived, probably, from the office of the clericus, who attended, amongst other duties, to the provisioning the king's household. See Du Cange. A person serving a practising solicitor under binding articles in England, for tbe purpose of being admitted to practice as a solicitor. See Clerkship. In New England, used to designate a corporation official who performs some of tbe duties of a secretary.

In ecclesiastical law. A person in holy orders; a clergyman; an individual attached to the ecclesiastical state, and who has the clerical tonsure. See 4 Bl. Comm. 366, 367.

In practice. A person employed in a public office, or as an officer of a court, whose duty is to keep records or accounts.

In commercial law. A person employed by a merchant, or in a mercantile establishment, as a salesman, book-keeper, acoount-ant, amanuensis, etc., invested with more or less authority in the administration of some branch or department of the business, while the principal himself superintends the whole. State v. Barter, 58 N. H. 604; Hamuel v. State, 5 Mo. 264; Railroad Co. v. Trust Co.., 82 Md. 535, 34 Atl, 778, 38 In R. A. 97.

— Clerk of arraigns. In English law. An assistant to the clerk of assise. His duties are in the crown court on circuit.

— Clerk of assise. In English law. Officers who officiate as associates on the circuits. They reconi nil judicial proceedings done by the judges on the circuit.

— Clerk of court. An officer of a court of justice who has charge of the clerical part of its business, who keeps its records and seal, issues process, enters judgments and orders, gives certified copies from the records, etc. Peterson v. State, 45 Wis. 540; Ross v. Heathcock, 57 Wis. 89, 15 N. W. 9; Gonion v. State, 2 Tex. App. 154; U. S. v. Warren, 12 Okl. 350, 71 Pac. 685.

— Clerk of enrollments. In English law. The former chief officer of the English enrollment office, (q. v.) He now forms part of the staff of the central office.

— Clerk of the crown in chancery. See Crown Office in Chancery.

— Clerk of the honse of commons. An important officer of the English house of commons. He is appointed by the crown as under-clerk of the parliaments to attend upon the commons. He makes a declaration, on entering upon his office, to make true entries, remembrances, and journals of the things done and passed in the house. He signs all orders of the house, indorses the bills sent or returned to the lords, and reads whatever is required to be read in the house. He has the custody of all records and other documents. May, Pari. Pr. 236.

— Clerk of the market. The overseer or superintendent of a public market. In old English law; he was a quasi judicial officer, having power to settle controversies arising in the market between persons dealing there. Called "clericus mercatV 4 Bl. Comm. 275.

— Clerk of the parliaments. One of the chief officers of the house of lords. He is appointed by the crown, by letters patent. On entering office he makes a declaration to make true entries and records of the things done and passed in the parliaments, and to keep secret all such matters as shall be treated therein. May, Pari. Pr. 238.

— Clerk of the peace. In English law. An officer whose duties are to officiate at sessions of the peace, to prepare indictments, and to record the proceedings of the justices, and to perform a number of special duties in connection with the affairs of the county.

— Clerk of the petty bag. See Petty Bag.

— Clerk of the privy seal. There are four of these officers, who attend the lord pnvy seal, or, in the absence of the lord privy seal, the principal secretary of state. Their duty is to write and make out all things that are sent by warrant from the signet to the privy seal, and which are to be passed to the great seal; and also to make out privy seals (as they are termed) upon any special occasion of his majesty's affairs, as for the loan of money and such like purposes. Cowell

— Clerk of the signet. An officer, in England, whose duty it is to attend on the king's principal secretary, who always has the custody of the privy signet, as well for the purpose of sealing his majesty's private letters, as also grants which pass his majesty's hand by bill signed ; there are four of these officers. Cowell.

— Clerks of indictments. Officers attached to the central criminal court in England, and to each circuit. They prepare and settle indictments against offenders, and assist the clerk of arraigns.

— Clerks of records and writs. Officers formerly attached to the English court of chancery, whose duties consisted principally in sealing bills of complaint and writs of execution, filing affidavits, keeping a record of suits, and certifying office copies of pleadings and affidavits. They were three in number, and the business was distributed among them according to the letters of the alphabet. By the judicature acts, 1873, 1875, they were transferred to the chancery division of the high court. Now, by the judicature (officers') act, 1879, they have been transferred to the central office of the supreme court, under the title of "Masters of the Supreme Court," and the office of clerk of records and writs has been abolished. Sweet.
—Clerks of seats, in the principal registry of the probate division of the English high court, discharge the duty of preparing and passing the granis of probate and letters of administration, pnder the supervision of the registrars. There are six seals, the business of which is regulated by an alphabetical arrangement, and each seat has four clerks. They have to take bonds from administrators, and to receive caveats against a grant being made in a case where a will is contested. They also draw the "acts," i. e., a short summary of each grant made, containing the name of the deceased, amount of assets, and other particulars. Sweet.

A person employed to keep accounts, and the like; a person employed to keep records, as, the clerk of a court, who keeps minutes or records of the proceedings, and has the custody of the record and the seal; a person serving in the office of an attorney or a solicitor in order to qualify himself for practice, — where bound by articles, an articled clerk.

In English ecclesiastical law. A priest or clergyman; a person in orders. V. Benefit of clergy; Clericus.

In ecclesiastical law. A person in holy orders; a clergyman; an individual attached to the ecclesiastical state, and who has the clerical tonsure. See 4 Bl. Comm. 366, 367.

In practice. A person employed in a public office, or as an officer of a court, whose duty is to keep records or accounts.

In commercial law. A person employed by a merchant, or in a mercantile establishment, as a salesman, book-keeper, accountant, amanuensis, etc., invested with more or less authority in the administration of some branch or department of the business, while the principal himself superintends the whole.

1. A member of the clergy. The clergy, as they engrossed almost every Other branch of learning, were remarkable for their study of the law. The judges were usually created out of the sacred order, and all the mf erior ofdcers were supplied by the lower clergy, which occasioned theh' successors to be denominated " clerks." » 2. A person employed to keep records; as, a clerk of a court. Clerk of courts. The chief clerk of the courts of quarter sessions and oyer and terminer. (Penn.) See Prothonotary; Minutes, 1. ' See E. S. §§ 1197, 4200, 4207. 2 Nat. Exchange Bank v. Nat. Bank of North America, 132 Mass. 148 (1882). a 4 Bl. Cora. 356. 4 See R. S. § 5329; 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 936; 1 Chitty, Cr. Hist. Cr. L. Eng. 469-72. Clerical error. See Eeroe, 3 (1); Record, 3, Judicial. 3. A person employed to keep minutes, accounts, and the like. A person, employed in an office, public or private, for keeping records, whose business is to write or register in proper form the transactions of the tribunal or body to which be belongs.! An employee who attends to sales no further than delivering goods manufaiptm-ed, and keeping a memorandum of the delivery for a temporary purpose, is not a " clerk " within the meaning of the rule which requires proof of the original entries.'' See Agent; Servant, 8; Entky; II, 1.

A person in ecclesiastical orders. Anciently, a person who could read. For Six clerks, clerks of the Hanaper, Petty lag, see those titles.

\L.l,B.i. clericus; L.Fr. c/er.] In English ecclesiastical law. A priest or clergyman; a person in orders. When a person has been ordained a priest, he is, in the language of the law, a clerk in orders, 1 Bl, Com, 388. A person presented to a benefice or living is technically called a c Urk. Id. ibid, et seq. In genera] law and practice. An officer of a court, who keeps its minutes or records its proceedings, and has the custody of its records and seal. Sometimes called a/wothonotary, (q. v.) See Clerkship. This latter meaning of the term clerk, which is the prevalent one in modern law, though itself of considerable antiquity, seems to have entirely grown out of the primitive signification of ecclesiastic. Selden*s Diss, ad Fletam, ch. 9, sect. 3. Among other branches of learning formerly exclusively confined to the clergy were the (now ordinary) accomplishments of reading and writing. The ability to rsad^ as we have seen, was at first so entirely peculiar to that body that for a convict to be able to read (though never in holy orders,) was, of itself, sufficient to entitle him to the privilege of clergy. 4 Bl. Com, 367. The mere certificate of the ordinary or his deputy, legit ut clericus, (he reads as a clerk, like one of the clergy,) procured his immediate discharge from the temporal court. See Benefit of clergy, Clericus. The still rarer accomplishment of writing, was so far engrossed by the clergy as, in the course of time, to obtain for any person who habitually used Ms pen, in any employment, the appellation of " a clerk," {clericus;) and this circumstance, in addition to the fact that the judges of courts were formerly usually created out of the sacred order, and that all the inferior offices were supplied by the lower clergy, sufficiently accounts for the application of the term clerk (once peculiar to the clergy) to those officers of courts whose principal function' was to use their pen in recording the proceedings. Termes de la ley, 1 Bl, Com, 17. Seldens Diss, ad Fletam, ch. 9, sec. 3.

commerce, contract, isa person in the employ of a merchant, who attends only to a part of his business, while the merchant himself superintends the whole. He differs from a factor in this, that the latter wholly supplies the place of