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 Mr Pindar, and Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr 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.