Unnamed Chancery Clerk 1

Typically, the "Chancery Clerk" mentioned by the narrator of "The Old People" would have been elected to his position (204) . His job would include collecting demographic data and presiding over the chancery court records, which mainly dealt with disputes about property and contracts adjudicated in the court. (Curiously, all mention of this person is gone from the version of the story Faulkner includes in Go Down, Moses: there the phrase is "chancery book in Jefferson," 163).