Lichfield Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Chad, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
The three spired Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Chad forms a small extra parochial area within the city referred to as Lichfield The Close or Lichfield the Friary in record sources.

At the time of the Conquest, Lichfield, notwithstanding the distinction it had enjoyed under the Saxon kings, was but an inconsiderable place; and in 1075, when the conncil decreed that sees should no longer remain in obscure towns, Peter, Bishop of Licidfeld, transferred his see to Chester. It continued there till it was removed by his successor, Robert de Limsey, to Coventry, whence it was restored to Lichfield in 1148 by Roger de Clinton, who began the church, and fortified the castle. At what time, or by whom, the castle was originally built, has not been clearly ascertained; it is asserted upon very good authority, that Richard II., after his deposition from the throne, was detained here as a prisoner, on his route to the Tower of London: no vestiges of the building remain. During the parliamentary war, Lichfield embraced the royal cause; and Charles I., after the battle of Naseby, slept for one night in the Cathedral Close. In 1643, Sir Richard Dyott, with some of the principal gentlemen of the county, under the command of the Earl of Chesterfield, fortified this part of the town against the republican forces under Lord Brooke and Sir John Gell, the former of whom, having stationed himself in the porch of an adjoining house, was shot by a member of the Dyott family, from the battlements of the cathedral. The attack being continued by Sir John Gell, the garrison surrendered on honourable terms, and the parliamentarians retired, leaving a body of troops, who, in the following month, were repulsed by Prince Rupert: the royalists kept possession of the town till its final surrender to the parliament. During these conflicts the cathedral suffered material injury; its rich sculptures were destroyed, it was converted into stables by the parliamentarian troops, and in 1651 it was set on fire, and, by order of parliament, left to neglect and decay.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 78-85. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51106 Date accessed: 14 April 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Staffordshire BMD have indexes for births. Due to March 2011 reorganisation of the registration service for South Staffordshire districts the historical registration indexes for this district have been located at the Newcastle under Lyme registration district (formerly held at Lichfield) and applications for certificates need to be directed there. Please refer to the "Updates" page of Staffordshire BMD for further information.

Church records
Lichfield Record Office hold deposited parish registers Bap 1660-1984 Marr 1660-1836 Bur 1660-1984 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishops Transcripts Bap 1744-1892 Marr 1774-1892 Bur 1774-1888

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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