City Clerk

The Municipal Clerk, along with the tax collector, is the oldest public office.  This position can be traced back to biblical times and even before.  Ancient Greece had a city secretary who read official documents publicly.  At the opening of a meeting, one of the duties was to read a curse upon anyone who should seek to deceive people.  The early keepers of the archives were often called remembrances, and before writing came into use, their memory was the public record. When the early colonists came to America, they set up forms of local government to which they had been accustomed, and the office of clerk was one of the first established.  

 

Over the years, city clerks have become the hub of government and a direct link between the inhabitants of their towns and their government.  The clerk is the historian of the community, for the entire recorded history of the town and its people is in the clerk's care.