The circuit clerk and recorder in counties wherein the offices are combined, as recorder of the county, may appoint in writing one or more deputies, to be approved by the circuit judge of the circuit court, which appointment with the like oath of office as their principals, to be taken by them and endorsed thereon shall be filed in the office of the county clerk. Such deputy recorders shall possess the qualifications of clerks of courts of record, and may, in the name of their principals, perform the duties of recorders of deeds, but all circuit clerks and recorders and their sureties shall be responsible for the official conduct of their deputies.