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The Office of the City Clerk was established with the passing of the St. John's Municipal Act in 1921. It replaced the position of Secretary and Secretary-Treasurer, becoming the major administrative body of the Municipal Council. Consequently, this office was charged with a wide range of municipal issues including minute keeping for all meetings and committees of Council, bookkeeping, taxation collection, property appraisal and assessment, licensing and complaints. This office was also responsible for compiling voters' lists for general municipal elections.

As the city developed and its work became more diversified, some of the duties traditionally overseen by the City Clerk were filtered out to other divisions. In 1952, The City of St. John's Act made provision for two new lateral departments positions, that of City Comptroller and Financial Supervisor. However, by 1970, the City Clerk’s Department still oversaw the Recreation Director, Real Estate Officer, Parking Supervisor, Taxi Inspector, Printing Supervisor, Stores Supervisor, Dog Impounder and steno pool. The Data Processing Division and the Director of Personnel and Labour were also administered by this Department by the mid-1970s. Later additions included the Bowring Park Superintendent, NIP East and West offices, and a building superintendent. By the 1980s, the areas overseen by the City Clerk’s department were many and varied, and many officials began to question the effectiveness and efficiency of this administrative structure.

During the early 1990s, the municipal administrative structure underwent a period of intensive examination and scrutiny both by internal and external reviewers. These processes eventually led to some important structural and managerial changes. These changes were precipitated largely by the Doane Raymond Report, an external review of the administrative system at City Hall released in November of 1992. Two years later, in November of 1994, the problems were examined again by an internal committee consisting of Councillors Keith Coombs, Marie White, John Dinn and Shawn Skinner. Both documents cited significant problems with the structure, managerial and communication styles at City Hall. Particularly, the committee cited a longstanding lack of communication between both managers and departments, which ultimately led to confusion of mandates, significant overlapping of work duties, and both management and departments becoming “…protective of their turf,” as the 1994 report stated. In sum, these reviews cited how the municipal administrative structure had failed to modernize at the same pace that city services and responsibilities had increased over the past 100 years. Nowhere was this more evident, it was argued, than in the multitude of tasks overseen by the City Clerk's Department.

To remedy this problem, the internal Committee recommended that each department meet with management on a monthly basis, so as to firmly and regularly communicate the short and long term goals of each department and its respective members. The committee also recommended that all departmental managers make every effort to represent their departments in Standing Committee meetings to ensure departments remain aware of issues in other departments. Another significant recommendation by the committee was that the city management structure be altered to allow for the establishment of a Chief Commissioner and two Associate Commissioners. These added upper-management positions, it was argued, could work in consultation with the City Clerk and the City of St. John's Archives Guide to the Holdings City Manager to allot roles and responsibilities in a more efficient manner. This concern was also addressed in the Doane Raymond Report, which stated that the roles of some departments were not clearly defined, and that responsibility was not evenly apportioned among senior management.

As of 1993 the Building Superintendent went with the Department of Building and Property Management, as well as the divisions of Animal Control and Parking and Traffic. Animal Control [Humane Services] was
transferred to Public Works and Parks effective May 1999. Purchasing Agent and Stores Superintendent went first to Public Works but is now with Finance. City Clerk was no longer responsible for financial duties such as bookkeeping, accounts receivable and payable and budgeting activities. However, matters relating to assessments, elections, minute-keeping, licensing and complaints remained under their jurisdiction.

The Data Processing Department became Computer Services and is now called Information Services. It moved to Finance in 1979, then back to City Clerk and is now with the Department of Corporate and Information Services. Property Assessment, Internal Mail and Central Publishing are also with Corporate and Information Services as of 1995. The Department of Administrative Services and City Clerk is now responsible for Minute-Keeping, Elections and Voter's Lists, Archives and Records Management Division and the distribution and updating of the Corporation and Operational Policy Manual. The City Clerk’s department is now known as the Director of Corporate Services and City Clerk Department.

Former City Clerks: P.W Kelly, Secretary-Treasurer 1895-1899; M.K. Greene, Secretary-Treasurer 1899-1902; I.J Slattery, Secretary-Treasurer 1902-1920; J.J. Mahoney, City Clerk 1920-1952; E.B Foran, City Clerk 1952-1970; R.J. Greene, City Clerk 1970-1990; Damian Ryan, City Clerk, 1990-2002; Neil Martin 2002 to present.

Nathan DeMill (1804-1864) was a Loyalist and a prosperous merchant, shipowner, and lumberman in Saint John, New Brunswick. He was active on the board of governors of Acadia College. Having left the Church of England, he became a Baptist and was a man of strong principles who abstained from alcohol. He was nick-named "cold-water DeMill".

The Deer Lake Parish is a parish of the Anglican Church of Canada in the Diocese of Western Newfoundland. It included what is now the Pasadena/Cormack Parish from 1957 until 199?. In 1964, Hampden, which is now a part of the While Bay Parish, was also included.
Churches include:
St. Michael & All Angels (Deer Lake)
Ascension (Howley)
St. David (Pasadena)
St. George (Cormack)
Epiphany (Hampden)

Adrian Dee (1896-1951), Catholic priest, was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, on 24 May 1896, son of Theresa Ellen (Cronan) and Jeremiah Dee. He died on 28 December 1951.

Dee received his early education in St. Bonaventure's College, St. John's. He attended Holy Heart Seminary, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he completed his studies in philosophy and theology for the priesthood. Dee was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John's on 24 June 1919, by Edward Patrick Roche, Archbishop of St. John's.

Following several short term appointments in St. John's, Rev. Dee was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Oderin, Placentia Bay (1919-21). He was subsequently named as parish priest of Holy Rosary Parish, Argentia, on 1 January 1922.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the United States government established naval and army bases at Argentia, whose ice-free harbour and strategic position was considered crutial for the control of the North Atlantic. The construction of the massive baes and the arrival of 12,000 American servicemen resulted in the dismantlement of the community and the relocation of the civilian population from the area.

In 1941 the seat of the parish was moved from Argentia to the neighbouring community of Freshwater. Rev. Dee supervised the construction of all parish facilities required by the congregation and provided his support and advice to parishioners who had relocated from Argentia. He also served as the Catholic chaplain to the American troops, until a military chaplain was stationed at Argentia. Rev. Dee retained a cordial relationship with the military authorities at Argentia until the time of his death in 1951.

David B. Russell was born at Bay Roberts on 29 July 1916, son of Charles E. and Francis (Pike) Russell. He was educated at Snowden Hall Methodist School. He was married in 1937 to Dorothy B. Jones and their children include: Howard, Elizabeth, Robert, Wilson and Donna. He had been in the printing business 52 years. His community involvements included: member of the Patriotic Association and Comforts Committee during World War II, member of the Bay Roberts Road Board, 12 years as a member of the Bay Roberts Town Council, member of the Kiwanis Club, active with the Red Cross Society, the Canadian Cancer Society and Newfoundland T.B. Association. He was sole operator of the Bay Roberts Guardian and D.B. Russell Printing from 1944 and associated with the operation in every capacity since 1930. He died in April 1990. He inherited the family- owned business from his father, Charles E. Russell.

C.E. Russell was born in Bay Roberts in 1877. The family moved to St. John’s and Charles began selling newspapers at the age of 9. He began as a member of the staff of the Telegram until the age of 17 when he moved to Toronto. He found employment with the Methodist Publishing House. He returned to St. John’s and along with Kenneth Barnes, printed and published a weekly newspaper called “The Citizen”. He moved back to Bay Roberts and in 1909 bought a small printing plant from Harris and Wesley Mosdell. On July 9, 1909, the first issue of “The Guardian” rolled off the man- power driven press. At the death of C.E. Russell, on October 30, 1937, the name of “The Guardian” was changed to “The Bay Roberts Guardian”. In 1920, an automated typesetting machine (linotype) was acquired along with an eight ton press. Photostat copies of “The Guardian” and “The Bay Robert’s Guardian” from 1909 – 1949 may be viewed at the Newfoundland Archives, St. John’s.

David B. Russell was born at Bay Roberts on 29 July 1916, son of Charles E. and Francis (Pike) Russell. He was educated at Snowden Hall Methodist School. He was married in 1937 to Dorothy B. Jones and their children include: Howard, Elizabeth, Robert, Wilson and Donna. He had been in the printing business 52 years. His community involvements included: member of the Patriotic Association and Comforts Committee during World War II, member of the Bay Roberts Road Board, 12 years as a member of the Bay Roberts Town Council, member of the Kiwanis Club, active with the Red Cross Society, the Canadian Cancer Society and Newfoundland T.B. Association. He was sole operator of the Bay Roberts Guardian and D.B. Russell Printing from 1944 and associated with the operation in every capacity since 1930. He died in April 1990. He inherited the family- owned business from his father, Charles E. Russell.

C.E. Russell was born in Bay Roberts in 1877. The family moved to St. John’s and Charles began selling newspapers at the age of 9. He began as a member of the staff of the Telegram until the age of 17 when he moved to Toronto. He found employment with the Methodist Publishing House. He returned to St. John’s and along with Kenneth Barnes, printed and published a weekly newspaper called “The Citizen”. He moved back to Bay Roberts and in 1909 bought a small printing plant from Harris and Wesley Mosdell. On July 9, 1909, the first issue of “The Guardian” rolled off the man- power driven press. At the death of C.E. Russell, on October 30, 1937, the name of “The Guardian” was changed to “The Bay Roberts Guardian”. In 1920, an automated typesetting machine (linotype) was acquired along with an eight ton press. Photostat copies of “The Guardian” and “The Bay Robert’s Guardian” from 1909 – 1949 may be viewed at the Newfoundland Archives, St. John’s.

James Wentworth Day (1899-1983), writer, publisher and editor, was born on 21 April 1899 in Suffolk, England. He was the son of J.T. Wentworth Day and Martha Ethel Staples. In 1943, Day married Marion Edith McLean. He died on 4 January 1983.

Day was a prolific writer, publishing several books and editing various magazines and newspapers. He was a writer for several English newspapers including the Sunday Express, Daily Express, and Evening Standard. He served as a war correspondent in France in 1940. In 1950 and 1951 Day contested the electoral seat of Hornchurch Division in Essex for the Conservative party.

Captain Thomas Davis (1716-1801), fish merchant, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a fisherman. He became a small merchant in Beverly across the North River in the decades before the outbreak of the American Revolution. During the period covered by these account books, he owned three schooners that he employed in the offshore fisheries and the coastal trade to Virginia. On shore, he owned a flakeyard where hired men dried fish from his vessels.