GENUKI: Lichfield St Mary

Lichfield St Mary

"St Mary's is a plain edifice, with a short tower, on the south side of the Market Place. The present building was completed in 1721, but is about to be repaired, and the tower rebuilt.
The vicarage is in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, and incumbency of the Ven George Hodson, MA, archdeacon of Stafford."

[From History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

Cemeteries
Church History
Church Records

Cemeteries

St Mary, Lichfield, had no churchyard and only the two earliest registers contain burials. The registers from 1581 give the place of burial of parishioners which is usually St Chad or St Michael, Lichfield.

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Church History

St Mary's was said to have been founded in 855 but this date is regarded as suspect by historians. It is known that the master and brethren of the guild of the Blessed Mary had a chantry here, which was dissolved in 1545. After this the members of the Cathedral officiated at the church, but it was eventually constituted a distinct vicarage.
The church was rebuilt in 1721, and again in 1868, as a memorial to Bishop Lonsdale.
It is built in Derbyshire stone, in the Gothic style, consisting of a clerestoried nave of four bays, chancel, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with spire, erected in 1853, and containing eight bells.

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Church Records

Church of England Registers
The register of St Mary commences in 1566. The original registers for the period 1566-1917 (Bapts), 1566-1921 (Mar), & 1566-1921 (Bur), and Banns for the period 1754-1792 & 1823-1954 are deposited at Lichfield Record Office.
Bishops Transcripts for the period 1659-1868 (with gaps 1662-72 & 1675-78) are deposited at Lichfield Record Office.

Nonconformist Church Registers
Records of Nonconformist churches in Lichfield can be found on the Lichfield page.