Clerks may administer oaths and take depositions, affidavits and renunciations of dower. The clerk of any county in which the office of master does not exist may, by consent of parties, sign orders of reference in vacation and may also, upon proper proceedings filed, grant orders for the partition of real or personal estate and for the admeasurement of dower in cases where the right of partition or dower is not contested or the same has been ascertained by a decree of the court. All proceedings under such orders shall be filed at the next succeeding term of the court for the adjudication of the presiding judge, until which adjudication all equities of the parties shall be reserved.