Of the Bishop of Winchester Prelate5 Marks.
Dukes5
Of every Earl6 Nobles.
Baron or Baronet4
Knight Batchelor2

The first payment was agreed to be pay’d down, and so to remain in force annually with request to the absent Knights, that for the Honour of the Order, and causes in the Instrument express’d, they would approve of their Ordinance which passed under the Seal of the Order, Dated at Windsor, 1422. Afterwards King Hen. VI. in consideration of his Services to his Father and himself, with consent of his Council, granted to the said Brugges, by Letters Patent, a Pension of 20 l. per Annum, out of the Fee Farm of the City of Winchester during his pleasure, which Pension upon the surrender of his Patent he granted anew to him and Agnes his Wife, for their Lives and the longer liver of them; and when this Office upon Sir William Brugges death, was devolved on John Smert, Guyenne herald (3 April 28 Hen. VI.) he had the yearly Sum of 20 l. granted him therewith for Life out of the Exchequer: But his Successor John Wrythe, Norroy, obtained an increase of Pension to 40 l. per Annum, made payable out of the small Customs of the City of London; this annual Sum was afterwards confirmed to Garter by the Constitution of his Office, and an Augmentation from the then Knights-Companions additional to the Pensions granted by their Predecessors, upon the Death of King Hen. V.

Of A Duke4 Pounds.
A Marquess5 Marks.
An Earl4
A Baron6 Nobles.
A Knight Batchelor 4

In succeeding times the Sovereign thought fit to augment this Pension to 50 l. per Annum, (now payable out of the Revenue settled upon the Order,) and the Knights-Companions yet to enlarge their Sallery, which they did, (the Sovereign assenting) by the decree made in a Chapter held at Windsor 13, 14, and 15. Sept. An. 1617. wherein it was ordained, That their Officer Sir William Segar Garter Knight, King of Arms of that Order should then, and from thenceforth have renew’d and paid unto him certain annual Fees and Pensions, anciently enjoyed by his Predecessors, with a surplus of 10 l. per Annum, which his Majesty’s Act of Royal Bounty, hath given to his said Servant for his better support and maintenance, as also of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, the Sum of 8 l. and of every Duke of the Blood 6 l. all other Estates, viz. a Duke not of the Blood 4 l. a Marquess 5 Marks, an Earl 4 Marks, a Viscount 7 Nobles, a Baron 40 s. and a Knight Batchelor that shall be of the Order, 26 s. 8 d. all which said Sums of Money, according to the several degrees of their Estates, are to be paid, (continues the Decree) unto the said Garter or his assigns yearly at St. Georges’s Feast, or immediately after, as well by the Knights then present, as by those that shall be absent, or hereafter are to succeed in the said Order; and after the decease of the said Garter, to his Successors for ever.

At St. Georges’s Feast, Celebrated at Windsor, 22, 23, and 24 of April, Anno 15 Car. II. Sir Edward Walker then Garter, representing by Petition, that the annual Pension of the installed Knights then in Arrear for one Year, amounted to 94 l. 13 s. 4 d. according to their proper proportion, the Sovereigns Share, (he being to pay for all stranger Knights) amounted at that time, to 32 l. 13 s. 4 d. and humbly praying that his Majesty would grant to him and his Successors an 100 l. per Annum, out of the Revenue settled to the use of the Order, in lieu not only of those said Pensions, payable from the Sovereign and Knights-Companions, both Strangers and Subjects; but for resigning his Claim to his annual Pension of 50 l. in consideration for preparing Scutcheons and removal of Atchievements. This Petition the Sovereign was pleased to refer to a Committe of the Knights-Companions, who, namely the Duke of Albemarl, the Earls of Lindsey, Manchester, Sandwich, and Stafford, who being attended by Garter, and weighing the event of the Petition, offered their opinions to the Sovereign, to grant him the said 100 l. per Annum in lieu of what he offered to quit, whereby the interest of this Office might be preserved in a more compendious Method than it was, his Majesty exempted from those small payments for Strangers, and the Knights-Subjects themselves were discharged from their annual Pension, and his Majesty ratifying the same shortly after, Sir Henry de Vic, the Chancellor, was ordered to pay unto Garter, and his Successors the said annual Pension of 100 l. which was accordingly put in Execution, as an Equivalent for all Fees and Salaries relating to the Order of the Garter.

The Duty of this Officer in general is, to perform, or cause to be effected all Transactions whatsoever, the Sovereign, or Prelate, or Chancellor shall enjoyn him, in relation to this Most Noble Order.

§. 5. The fifth and last Officer is the Black-Rod. This Officer was instituted by the Founder, King Ed. III. but whether at the first Erection of the Order doth not appear. Howbeit, within a few Years after, 35 E. III. the King conferr’d to William Whitehorse, Esq; for Life, Officium Hostiarii Capellæ Regis infra Castrum de Windesore, with a Fee of 12 d. a Day out of his Exchequer.

Anno 3 Hen. IV. this Office is called Officium Virgarij comitivæ de la Garter infra Castrum Regis de Windesore; and under that Denomination was confirmed to Thomas Sye, with the Fees and Emoluments thereunto expressed. In the Patent to his Successor, John Athilbrigg, Ann. 1 H. 5. it is stiled, Officium Virgarij sive Ostiarij, &c. Afterwards it hath the Title, Officium Virgæ-bajuli coram Rege ad festum Sancti Georgii infra Castrum Regis de Windesore. And ever since it runs in the Patents by the Appellation of Virgæ-Bajulus, Virgarius, or Nigri-vergifer. But in the Constitutions of his Office, he hath the Title of Hostiarius; and under the restriction of these Qualifications, that he be a Gentleman of Blood and Arms, born within the Sovereigns Dominions; and if he be not a Knight at his admission into the Office, he ought then to be Knighted. As Garter was Entituled the Principal Officer of Arms, so was the Black-Rod, for the Honour of the Order, appointed the Chief Usher in the Kingdom. And as he is so, and frequently called Gentleman-Usher of the Black-Rod, so we shall wave, as we did in Garter, all things appertaining to his Employments, otherwise than what directly is included in this Most Noble Order.

In a Chapter held at Whitehall, the 13th of February, 6 Car. I. It was decreed, That the Office of the Black-Rod should from thenceforth successively, as soon as the same should become void (James Maxwell, Esq; then enjoying it) be annexed to some one of the Gentlemen-Ushers, Daily-waiters, whom the Sovereign should appoint.