History

The Office of the Clerk of the British House of Commons dates as far back as 1363 when Robert de Melton was appointed Clerk of the House. The first Clerk of the House of Assembly was Lewis Bennet. After only one year in office Mr. Bennet requested and received the permission of the Governor to travel to Carolina. There is no record that he ever returned to the post of Clerk.

Initially, the Governor appointed the Clerks but later the Clerks were appointed by the House.

Governor Woodes Rogers appointed his Secretary, Charles Malloy, to act in the absence of Mr. Bennet. Governor Rogers was in the midst of an acrimonious struggle with the members of the Assembly more particularly with the Speaker John Colebrooke.  Governor Rogers probably anticipated that Mr. Malloy, being his Secretary, would be more loyal to him than to the Assembly. On 30 November 1730 the members of the Assembly sensing Mr. Malloy's divided loyalty sent a message to Governor Rogers to appoint Mr. Malloy as Clerk of the Assembly with the objective of removing his temporary title as Acting Clerk.

As the disagreement between Governor Woodes Rogers and the Speaker intensified and the members obviously believing that Mr. Malloy was keeping the Governor aware of what was being said in the Assembly, the Assembly passed a Resolution to oblige Mr. Malloy to take an oath swearing to execute his post as Clerk truly and faithfully and to keep the secrets of the Assembly. Mr. Malloy was offended by the suggestion and questioned the authority of the Assembly to force him to take the oath. On 9 December 1730 the House passed a Resolution to have Mr. Malloy arrested and he was taken into custody; whereupon, Governor Woodes Rogers promptly dissolved the Assembly.

This was not the only occasion that a Speaker battled another entity over the appointment of the Clerk of the House. When John Smith died in 1969 there was no person on the House staff that had the necessary experience to be appointed as Clerk. Percy Saunders had only recently been appointed to the House as an Assistant Clerk and Speaker Alvin Braynen had suspended George Johnson who did have experience for what he called disloyalty to the House. The Speaker had written to Prime Minister Pindling expressing concern over the inadequate manner in which the records of the House were being kept. The Prime Minister's solution was to combine the work of the House and Senate under a senior officer in the Cabinet Office who would serve as the Clerk of the Legislature and who would be assisted by the Assistant House Clerk. Speaker Brayen found this solution unacceptable. He pointed out to the Prime Minister that the House was an independent chamber under the 1969 Constitution and that he was duty bound to take instructions from the House only, and that was the position he was taking. The Speaker admonished the Prime Minister that the independence of the House was something he could not surrender to the Cabinet Office and that he absolutely refuse to have any officer of the House under the Cabinet Office's influence. 

Duties of the Clerk

The Clerk is the principal adviser to the Speaker and Members of Parliament on matters of procedure. The Clerk sits immediately in front of the Speaker but at a lower level and is flanked by two table clerks on either side. In this position the Clerk can be consulted by the Speaker, Ministers and other Members on any procedural matter. The Clerk must be apolitical at all times in order to maintain the confidence of all Members.

The Clerk is responsible for taking the minutes\decisions of each sitting of the House (but not the Members' verbatim speeches as this is performed by the House Hansard Department). The Clerks log all documents tabled and the documents become part of the records of the House. The Clerk is responsible for the custody and safekeeping of the records of the House.

The Clerk is responsible for preparing the Agenda for House meetings. The items on the House Agenda are either tabled in the House as Notices for Future Meetings or they are sent in to the Clerk's Office as Notices to be included on the Agenda. The Clerk is responsible for keeping the records of how Members voted. The tradition has been for Members to vote for a motion by remaining seated and to stand to vote against a motion when a question is put by the Speaker. The Rules of the House permit a division or head count to be taken when requested by Members.  

The Clerk is also the head of the Parliament's administration and the parliamentary staff. He consults on the recruitment, promotion and discipline of House staff. Most Clerks are also the accounting officers of the Parliament and are responsible for the propriety and expenditure of funds allocated to the House.

The Clerk signs all Bills and Resolutions passed by the House and delivers the Bills to the Senate through a system of messages. He serves as Secretary to most House sessional and select committees and must notify Members and witnesses of meetings, take and draft the minutes of the meetings and assists the Chairpersons of Committees with the drafting of the reports of committees.

The Clerk is often the liaison between the relationship of the House with other parliaments and with their Clerks and serves as Secretary to most delegations to parliamentary conferences and workshops.