18th Century Lichfield: Cultural Capital of the Midlands [Text only version] Image: South West View of Lichfield Cathedral. Image from: John Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London, 1805). Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library Text: Malcolm Dick Summary In 18th century Britain, Lichfield was a small place in Staffordshire with a population of less than 5,000, but its importance was considerable. Not only was it a cathedral city with a regional religious influence, it also provided the home for many intellectuals. Samuel Johnson was the best known son of Lichfield, but he was one of several leading figures who were born, educated or lived as adults in the city. This exhibition explores the reasons for Lichfield’s significance as a “city of philosophers”. The lives of many of Lichfield’s famous citizens are described elsewhere on www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk Sections: (click on the images on the right to access each section) 1. “A City of Philosophers” 2. Lichfield’s Origins (1) 3. Lichfield’s Origins (2) 4. Lichfield’s Origins (3) 5. Re-building the City (1) 6. Re-building the City (2) 7. Re-building the City (3) 8. Roads and Inns (1) 9. Roads and Inns (2) 10. A City of Consumers (1) 11. A City of Consumers (2) 12. A City of Consumers (3) 13. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (1) 14. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (2) 15. The Decline of Lichfield Sources and Further Reading Lichfield Heritage Centre Lichfield Record Office (www.staffordshire.gov.uk/archives). . Erasmus Darwin House (www.erasmusdarwin.org). Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum (www.lichfield.gov.uk/sjmuseum). Clayton, Howard, Coaching City (Bala, 1970). Greenslade, M W, (ed.), A History of the County of Stafford, Vol. 14 (Oxford, 1990). Jackson, John, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London, 1805). Laithwaite, Percy, The History of the Lichfield Conduit Lands Trust 1546-1946 (Lichfield, Lomax, 1947). Lomax, T G., A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819). Shaw, Stebbing, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (1798, 1801). Uglow, Jenny, The Lunar Men (London, Faber, 2002). Upton, Chris, A History of Lichfield (Chichester, Phillimore, 2001). 1. “A City of Philosophers” Image: “View near Lichfield; including a most remarkably large Willow Tree.” This perspective looking across Stowe Pool had many connections with the intellectuals who lived in the city in the 18th century. In front of St Chad’s Church was St Chad’s well. In 1695, Sir John Floyer, the local physician recommended the medicinal quality of the water which flowed into the well from a chalybeate spring. He caused the spring to be enclosed and people went to Stowe to take the waters. Michael Johnson’s parchment factory stood close to the tree and the young Samuel Johnson spent much of his boyhood nearby. He learned to swim in the pool and he took a scientific interest in the tree itself. The tree was known as Johnson’s willow. To the right of St Chad’s is Stowe House. Thomas Day lived there in the 1770s and he was joined by his friend Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Together with Erasmus Darwin another Lichfield resident, Day and Edgeworth were part of the Lunar Society. Image from: John Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London, 1805). Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 1. “A City of Philosophers” During the 18th century Birmingham became the industrial and commercial centre of the Midlands, but in the absence of any regional university, Lichfield could claim to be its cultural capital. This was a remarkable achievement for a city where the population was only 3,088 in 1695 (Gregory King’s estimate) and 4,842 according to the 1801 census. Samuel Johnson emphasised its importance when he told his biographer Boswell that Lichfield was a city of philosophers; “we work with our heads, and make the boobies of Birmingham work for us with our hands”. This was a caricature, but Lichfield was the intellectual heart of the region in at least two different respects. First, a number of individuals who made their impact on British cultural life were born in Lichfield or educated locally. They included Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian, Gregory King, the statistician, Joseph Addison, the essayist, Samuel Johnson, the writer and David Garrick, the actor-manager. Secondly, Lichfield became the home of several residents who achieved intellectual importance whilst living in the city. They included the physician, Sir John Floyer, the antiquarian Richard Greene, Erasmus Darwin, doctor and scientist, Anna Seward, the poet, Thomas Day, the humanitarian campaigner and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the inventor and educationalist. Darwin, Day and Edgeworth were members of the Lunar Society who were part of a wider network of creative individuals in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The “Lunaticks” met at each others homes at the time of the full moon and made central contributions to Enlightenment thinking and industrial innovation. 2. Lichfield’s Origins (1) Image: South-West View of Lichfield in the early 19th century which shows the churches which have influenced its history. From left to right they are the Cathedral, St Mary’s, St Chad’s and St Michael’s. Image from: John Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London, 1805). Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 2. Lichfield’s Origins (1) Why did a tiny settlement in south Staffordshire develop as a place of cultural achievement out of all proportion to its size? The reasons are due primarily to its importance as a religious centre. The physical mass of the cathedral dominates not only Lichfield’s geography, but its historical experience as well. Lichfield developed as the ecclesiastical centre of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. In 669 St Chad was appointed as the first Bishop of Lichfield. As Mercia grew in importance so did Lichfield and for a while it was the seat of an Archbishop. Mercia, though, was absorbed into the Kingdom of England and when counties became the main units of local government, Stafford not Lichfield became the county town. The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded Lichfield as a string of small settlements and one of the poorest of the medieval bishoprics, but in later years Lichfield developed into a significant place. 3. Lichfield’s Origins (2) Image: Lichfield’s market place, the centre of Bishop Roger de Clinton’s new town in the 12th century. This 18th century view shows the birthplace of Samuel Johnson (1), part of the Market Cross (2), St Mary’s Church (3) and part of the town or guildhall (4). Image from: John Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London, 1805). Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library 3. Lichfield’s Origins (2) The appointment of Roger de Clinton as bishop in 1129 led to a revival. According to one historian, “Bishop Clinton faced and dealt with the problem that Chad had bequeathed to him – how to make an isolated settlement like Lichfield of sufficient stature to support and justify a cathedral.” Clinton created a new town built on a grid pattern which also became the first town in Staffordshire to secure a market charter. Geographically Lichfield developed as two places; the fortified cathedral close with its distinctive religious character and the economic heart of the town on the other side of Minster Pool. Under Clinton and his successors, especially Bishop Langton, Lichfield emerged from relative obscurity into a regional commercial and cultural centre. It benefited from its location on main roads from Bristol to Doncaster and from London to Chester and Carlisle. It became a destination for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Chad and a resting place for those who journeyed on England’s arterial routes. Lichfield began to attract visitors and develop an infrastructure to accommodate them. 4. Lichfield’s Origins (3) Image: The Tudor Café, Bore Street, Lichfield, one of the few substantial 16th century buildings which survived the physical damage caused to the city’s buildings during the Civil War and as a result of fires in 1681 and 1697. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 4. Lichfield’s Origins (3) During the 14th,15th and early 16th centuries Lichfield developed in different directions, more churches were built, charitable institutions flourished and industry grew. Documents record the presence of tanners, weavers, dyers, glovers, cobblers, tailors and gold and silversmiths. Lichfield was relatively prosperous and local demand for luxury goods was high. Traumatic changes were inflicted upon the city during the 16th century Reformation and 17th century Civil War. During the former, religious institutions were overturned, reformed or abolished. There were political compensations. In 1548 the bishop resigned his manorial rights and Edward VI granted city and corporation status to the town, the first place in Staffordshire to be given this privilege. Lichfield became a destructive battleground between Roundheads and Cavaliers during the Civil War, but the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 provided stability and enabled the physical fabric of the city to be repaired. This combined with the benefits accruing to Lichfield from its location within an increasingly prosperous region which benefited from agricultural improvement in the Staffordshire countryside and industrial development in Birmingham, the Black Country, the Potteries and Derbyshire. Local aristocracy and gentry settled in the city. Travellers from south to north and east to west stayed in Lichfield’s inns. Its settled population and transient visitors provided markets for food and manufactured goods. A leisured class was able to access education, read books, purchase medical expertise and participate in a variety of cultural and intellectual pursuits. Lichfield’s importance as a religious centre was beginning to be overshadowed by a separate commercial and cultural experience 5. Re-building the City (1) Image: The Crucifix Conduit built by the Conduit Lands Trust. The Trust was founded in 1546 and contributed significantly to the reconstruction of Lichfield after the Civil War. As a result of income from land, the trust was able to channel supplies of fresh water into the city and provide money for other public enterprises. The Crucifix Conduit was situated close to the Friary. Image from: T G Lomax, A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819), Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 5. Re-building the City (1) One reason for Lichfield’s growing cultural significance was the great rebuilding which took place following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The Civil War caused huge physical destruction in Lichfield. The central spire of the cathedral was destroyed, extensive damage was caused to St Mary’s and St Chad’s churches and houses in the Close and Beacon Street were burned and beyond repair. Following the end of hostilities in 1646, lead and stone was removed or stolen from several damaged buildings. Nevertheless, within 40 years, or so it seems, much had been repaired. Celia Fiennes visited Lichfield in the 1690s and reported: The town has good houses, ye Close has ye Bishops and Deanes and prebends houses which are good; the streets are very neate and handsome, ye Breadth and length very well and the building handsome. She might have added that a healthy environment added to Lichfield’s attractiveness. The Conduit Lands Trust provided and progressively improved the supply of fresh water to the town, though sewerage was less effectively removed. Lichfield developed into a minor spa town in the late 17th and early 18th century when the physician Sir John Floyer encouraged bathing in local spring water. The Conduit Lands Trust was well-endowed and provided public baths, washing places, paving and lighting and also contributed finance to local schooling. 6. Rebuilding the City (2) Image: The West Window of Lichfield Cathedral taken from inside the building. In the background is part of the Close. Bishop Hacket was able to secure money from the Duke of York, the future James II to recreate the window after destruction during the Civil War. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 6. Rebuilding the City (2) The credit for reconstruction in the Close after the Civil War rests with Bishop John Hacket who secured Lichfield’s see in 1661. An energetic prelate, he was extremely successful at extracting money from the high and mighty, including the Duke of York, the future James II and Catherine, wife of Sir James Leveson of Trentham. Hacket claimed to have collected £15,000 by persuasive begging. Within five years he had re-roofed the nave, inserted new glass into the west window and re-constructed the central spire. The Bishop’s Palace had to wait until 1686-87. It was built grandly in the style of a small French chateau, but it did not become an Episcopal residence until it was enlarged in the 1860s; instead it was leased to wealthy residents. 7. Rebuilding the city (3) Image: Donegal House, Lichfield. This is one of the grandest of Lichfield’s houses (now a grade II listed building). It was built for James Robinson, a wealthy merchant in 1730. The history of the house is discussed on http://www.lichfield- tourist.co.uk/reframe.ihtml?http://www.lichfield-tourist.co.uk/history-donegal.ihtml Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 7. Rebuilding the city (3) Rebuilding outside of the Close was helped by fires in 1681 and 1697 which destroyed many of the old timber buildings. The corporation banned the use of thatched roofs and new houses were built in brick and stone. It was a tribute to Lichfield’s underlying prosperity that many substantial residences were created in a neo-classical style for landowners, clergymen, professionals and businessmen. Several still survive in Beacon Street, Bird Street, Bore Street, Dam Street, Market Street and St John’s Street. One of the grandest was Donegal House which was built in 1730 for a local merchant, John Robinson. Lichfield developed into an elegant and salubrious residential setting for the wealthy classes. 8. Roads and Inns (1) Image: St John’s Hospital, Lichfield. One of the first tollhouses in the city was built next to the Hospital in the 18th century to levy charges to assist with the upkeep of the road. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 8. Roads and Inns (1) Prior to the Restoration, Lichfield had developed into a market centre, post town and resting place for travellers on several routes across England. Industrial and commercial expansion increased traffic on local roads; journeys were difficult in bad weather and pressure developed for improvement. Turnpike trusts were one solution. They enabled local organisations to be established with the express purpose to levy tolls on road users and apply the revenue for physical improvements. In 1728 inhabitants from Lichfield and Stone petitioned Parliament to secure permission for bills to turnpike local stretches of road from London to Chester, Burton to Birmingham and Lichfield to Uttoxeter. An act was passed in the same year setting up the Lichfield Turnpike Trust which constructed toll houses and improved and maintained local arterial routes. By 1781 seven toll gates had been built on the boundaries of the city, an indication of its importance as a location on several transport routes. 9. Roads and Inns (2) Image: The King’s Head in Bird Street, one of Lichfield’s main coaching inns in the 18th century. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 9. Roads and Inns (2) Road improvements added to Lichfield’s popularity as a stopping-off place for travellers. Carrier, postal and passenger services connected Lichfield with London and other localities and led to the expansion in the size and number of coaching inns. Four inns dominated the trade, the George, Swan and King’s Head in Bird Street and the Talbot on Bore Street. The later restyled itself as a hotel in the 1760s. Passengers and horses rested overnight in the inns or waited for a connecting service, creating their own demand for local goods and services. The George had stabling for as many as 54 horses. An insight into the experience of travellers earlier in the century is provided by George Farquhar’s play of 1707, The Beaux’ Strategem, which was written and set in the George Inn. These larger inns played an important part in the cultural life of the city. They provided locations for conversation, entertainment, society dinners, concerts and club meetings. A drinking club known as the “Court of Truth” met at the George in the 1740s and political factions based their headquarters at local hostelries. At election time Tories met at the Swan and Whigs at the George. These inns were merely the elite amongst a series of taverns and beer houses. By the 1730s there were a total of 80 in Lichfield serving a population of about 3,500. They not only succoured local inhabitants, but provided a service to those who came into the city from outside. These were not only passing travellers, but others engaged in commercial activities or seeking the services that the city could offer. Inns were locations where people conducted business transactions as well as places where they spent their leisure and money on drink or gambling. Lichfeldians had a reputation for heavy drinking, a matter of concern for Gregory King and Erasmus Darwin, but without the presence of a vigorous economic and social life based on the inn, hotel and tavern, Lichfield would have lost a major source of income and its cultural experience would have been poorer. 10. A City of Consumers (1) Image: A surviving 18th century shop front in Market Street, Lichfield provides evidence of the city’s importance for consumers at the time. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 10. A City of Consumers (1) Despite the precedents established in medieval times, Lichfield never took off as an industrial centre in the 18th century. Commercial directories for the period make little reference to local industry and when James Boswell visited in 1776 he noted: Very little business seemed to be going forward in Lichfield. I found, however, two strange manufactures for so inland a place, sail-cloth and streamers for ships; and I observed them making saddle-cloths and dressing sheep skins, but on the whole the busy hand of industry seemed to be quite slackened. Lichfield’s wealth was created by shopkeepers and traders rather than industrialists. Matters may have been different if Lichfield had secured a presence on Britain’s canal network earlier than it did. This almost happened. In 1758 the engineer James Brindley was invited to survey a project connecting Minster Pool to the River Trent, before he established his reputation with Manchester’s Bridgewater Canal. The aim of the prospectus was to reduce the cost of transporting goods from Birmingham and the Black Country to the Trent and Humber. If this had happened, Lichfield would have developed into a hub for the canal network and an ideal location for industry. Other schemes were contemplated where Erasmus Darwin was a prime mover as he probably was with the 1758 scheme. In 1797, the Wyrley and Essington Canal, eventually connected Lichfield directly with the canal network and provided the city with cheap coal, but the city never developed a significant industrial base in the 19th century. 11. A City of Consumers (2) Image: Michael Johnson’s Bookselling premises on the corner of Market and Breadmarket Streets. Image from: T G Lomax, A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819), Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 11. A City of Consumers (2) Lichfield’s economic significance lay in its commercial economy, provided not only through its inns, but via services ministering to the needs of its wealthy inhabitants. Michael Johnson, the father of Samuel Johnson, moved to Lichfield in 1681 and sold, printed and bound books from his premises in Saddler Street and subsequently in Breadmarket Street. Hairdressers were conspicuous by their presence. There were seven in 1818. Writing in the 18th century, Anna Seward tells of hairdressers running about Lichfield all morning as the city grew “more fine and fashionable every day”. The city was catered for affluent customers, traders included confectioners, milliners, musical instrument makers, tea-dealers and watch makers. . 12. City of Consumers (3) Image: Lichfield’s Theatre was opened in Bore Street in 1790 and designed by James Miller. The playhouse was evidence of Lichfield’s importance as a venue for cultural events. It was not financially successful and closed in 1871. Image from: T G Lomax, A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819), Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 12. City of Consumers (3) 18th century Lichfield developed a series of attractions which contributed to its importance as a cultural centre. It was the home of two physicians of national importance, Sir John Floyer who practised in the city from the 1670s to 1734 and Erasmus Darwin who lived there from 1756to 1781. Both were interested in the medicinal qualities of local water, but Lichfield only developed briefly as a spa town. Lichfield Races which relocated from Fradley to Whittington in 1702 was an annual event and the biggest race meeting in Staffordshire. There were three days of festivities which included balls and dinners for the respectable and cock-fighting and sports for others. At other times, music and dancing took place at the Guildhall in Bore Street, the George in Bird Street and the hall of the Vicars Choral in the Close. Professional theatrical companies visited Lichfield from the 1760s and used the Guildhall for their location. A purpose-built playhouse was constructed in 1790. 13. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (1) Image: St John’s Hospital, Lichfield. This charitable foundation dates from medieval times and provided the first home for Lichfield Grammar School during its re-foundation in 1495-96. The print shows the chapel of the Hospital on the right. Image from: T G Lomax, A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819), Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 13. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (1) The presence of a wealthy, leisured class of consumers was not the only reason for Lichfield’s rise to eminence, a great deal was due to its educational institutions, particularly the grammar school, later to be wrongly described as a King Edward VI foundation. It was created in 1495 during the reign of Edward’s grandfather, Henry VII, when Bishop Smith’s established an institution where Latin grammar was taught and an endowment provided to pay for a schoolmaster and deputy. One of the first teachers was the Tudor scholar, Robert Whittinton, a writer of grammatical textbooks and self- styled first poet of England. 14. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (2) Image: Lichfield Grammar School, St John’s Street in the early 19th century. The school was originally located in St John’s Hospital and in the late 17th and early 18th centuries it educated a number of Britain’s outstanding scholars. The building still survives, but it was altered substantially. Image from: T G Lomax, A Short Account of the Ancient and Modern State of the City and Close of Lichfield (Lichfield, T G Lomax, 1819), Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library. 14. Educational Achievements: Lichfield Grammar School (2) In 1577 Lichfield Grammar School moved across the road from St John’s Hospital in St John’s Street, which effectively moved control from the church to the corporation. It was in the 17th century, though, that Lichfield Grammar School started to produce high achievers. Elias Ashmole and Gregory King were pupils in the early and mid 17th century, but its major impact was under the masterships of Robert Shaw (1680-1704) and John Hunter (1704-41). The latter was also grandfather of the female scholar, Anna Seward. Under Shaw and Hunter, the school educated five future judges, Joseph Addison, Isaac Hawkins Browne, the poet, John Wyatt, the inventor, Samuel Johnson and David Garrick. Johnson provided an account of Hunter’s style: “He used to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence…” Despite this approach towards discipline, or maybe because of it, the school proved to be highly popular and Hunter had to rent nearby property to accommodate 100 boarders in addition to the day scholars who lived locally. Lichfield Grammar School was a prominent educational institution which contributed directly to the intellectual achievements of local men. 15. The Decline of Lichfield Image: The 19th century buildings of Lichfield Grammar School. During the early 19th century the school was not a success. The buildings are now offices. The School moved to new premises in 1903. Image from: Photograph by Malcolm Dick (August 1983). 15. The Decline of Lichfield Lichfield’s importance as a “city of philosophers” did not last. In the 19th century it declined as an intellectual centre, despite continuing to develop socially and economically. Its population continued to grow from 4,842 in 1801 to 7,902 in 1901. Moreover the coming of Wyrley and Essington Canal in 1797 brought traders, cheap coal and additional industry, including a limeworks and boneworks to Lichfield. Railways, moreover, arrived in the 1840s. These changes did not compensate for the decline in Lichfield as a cultural centre. The city’s importance as a centre for leisure for the elite classes reached its height in the closing decades of the 18th century. The Races, once the high point of the local social calendar were in decline, probably from the late 1770. Lichfield’s Theatre which opened in 1790 struggled financially and closed in the 19th century. More importantly, the departure of Erasmus Darwin for Derbyshire in 1781 robbed Lichfield of its main intellectual attraction. Lichfield like other places in England was affected by the conservative reaction to the French Revolution. It was dangerous to express and debate radical ideas in the three decades after the Priestley Riots of 1791. One of the sources of Lichfield’s effervescence was coaching traffic which brought visitors, wealth and conversation to the city. It was in decline even before Lichfield was connected with the railway network. The last long-distance service, the mail coach to Chester ended in 1838. Lichfield’s Grammar School, once a training ground for the city’s achievers fell into decline. It reached its lowest point during the mastership of Cowperthewaite Smith who ran the school for 36 years from 1813. For a time it failed to attract any pupils. Ambitious parents sent their sons elsewhere. The lives of most of these individuals are presented elsewhere on www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk Chris Upton, A History of Lichfield (Chichester, Phillimore, 2001), p 19. ibid., p 68 ibid, p 24-25 ibid., p 68-71, 122. Ibid., p 90-95. Ibid., p 95. Ibid., p 133-137. ibid., p 97. Ibid., p 113-116. Ibid., p 35-36. Ibid., p 101. ibid., p 70-71, 101. Ibid., p 128. ibid., p 141-142. ibid., p 137. ibid., p 113. ibid., p 115. ibid., p 153. 1