Early Benefactors

     The following list of benefactors is a mix of bishops, deans, canons and noblemen who gave in some way to the early cathedrals. Much information comes from the Victorian County History.

 Chad had eight ‘brothers’ to assist him and possibly two succeeded him as the bishop. Offa’s archbishopric must have had several priests to assist services. If Offa copied Charlemagne a school of scribes and clergy would have been founded.

 Bishop Æthelwold, 818–830

According to the Lichfield Chronicle, 20 canons comprising 11 priests and 9 deacons, led the cathedral for the first time. Perhaps, the Rules of Bishop Chrodegang of Metz were introduced.[1] This history is a deduction and unreliable. There is no evidence of a Chapter. A late 16th-century history of the cathedral wrongly ascribed to Æthelwold the foundation of prebends to support his canons.

 There is a mention that the cathedral had 5 altars in the 850s and was being looked after by a bishop (Tunberht or Tunfrith, 841/5–857/62, or less likely Wulfsige 857/62–866/9) who had around 20 prebendaries, half being priests and half being deacons. This is a post-Conquest deduction.

 Bishop Roger Clinton, 1129–48

A 13th-century Prior of Coventry said the bishop introduced canons at Lichfield. This is false since the Domesday Book, 1086, had earlier stated on the bishop's manor five canons held three ploughs of land. Furthermore, it is possible five prebends existed by 1086 and were held by the five canons. It is also possible these positions were in place before the Conquest. The Lichfield Chronicle stated Clinton increased the number of prebends, but again this source of history is suspect. It is probable the new prebends were attached to the Coventry Priory.

            Clinton reconstituted the cathedral chapter in the 1130s, forming a collegium canonicorum along the same lines as those founded at Lincoln, Salisbury, and York.[2] It contained four dignitaries. It has been suggested that his motive in setting up a secular chapter at Lichfield was to obtain support against the monastic chapter at Coventry.[3] Why Clinton would have favoured Lichfield over richer and larger Coventry monastic priory has not been explained. His uncle Geoffrey nurtured Kenilworth priory and Roger could have done the same at Coventry.

 Bishop Roger Peche, 1161–82.

Ordered the institutions of the cathedral, choir and chapter, and clergy should, like its model at Rouen church, be strictly observed. The precentorship, first endowed in 1155, was further endowed in 1177 with the precentor called Matthew. A subdean was mentioned in 1165. The deanery was endowed c. 1176.

 Bishop Hugh Nonant, 1185–98

The duties and privileges of the four dignitaries were described in the first statutes of the cathedral. These were the earliest surviving statutes of any English cathedral, and probably drawn up by the dean and chapter for the bishop in 1191. The duties of the treasurer were described in comprehensive detail. A Chancellor was the legal and literary officer and kept the seals. He wrote the letters of the chapter and was expected to run a school. 

 Bishop Geoffrey Muschamp, 1198–1208

Gifts of land and endowments to the cathedral were given from 1180, but the most important donations to the common fund did not begin until the 1190s. It is thought the rebuilding of the choir occurred in this episcopate and would have required new stone and timber. Prebends were arranged which brought endowments to the cathedral and this continued until 1255. From then on, few changes were made, apart from the lapse of some prebendal arrangements.

 Dean Richard of Dalham

Possibly the first Dean appointed in the interdict, 1208–1215, enforced by the pope against King John. Ralph Nevill followed, appointed by King John.

 Dean William of Mancetter (Mancetre), 1222–1254

Probably the first Dean appointed by the Chapter, 1222, and who then raised the position as second to the bishop. He probably redrafted the statutes. He must have oversaw the early stages of the building of the cathedral and become involved with the rancorous dispute with the monks of Coventry cathedral regarding who had the right to elect a bishop. During his time many chantries appeared within the cathedral.

 Canon Thomas Bradford

It is thought he secured a clean water supply to the Close, c.1263.

 Bishop Roger Meuland (Meyland), 1258–95.

Rewrote the statutes and included a clerk to record meetings. He reordered services, enlarged endowments to the canons and priests, oversaw much of the rebuilding of the cathedral including obtaining grants for stone and timber and gave regulations on how farmed estates should be organised. During his episcopate there was much disagreement on the ownership of lands especially those in the Peak District. He enforced the practice of every canon having a vicar and the appointed vicar had to be tested in reading and singing. More chantry chapels were added to the cathedral. Meuland by some unknown means, acquired the rectory at Flixton, Manchester, c. 1290, and transferred it to the cathedral making it a prebend.

 Treasurer Walter of Leicester

A former sacrist appointed to look after the treasury. He formed a scriptorium composed of scriveners and vicars with literary and legal ability. One vicar, Alan of Ashbourne (Assheborn), wrote the Lichfield Chronicle begun c.1323 and continued until his death in 1334. Another vicar, John of Aston, also wrote a chronicle of which only fragments survive in a 16th-century copy. Savage[4] considered the many possible sources of information for Ashbourne’s book, most being second-hand and derived. Between 1317 and 1328 the Magnum Registrum Album, or Great Register, was written and contains information on the cathedral's privileges and property.

 Bishop Roger Northburgh, 1321–58.

Installed 98 canons, 94 selected by the pope. Many were related to the pope and never visited Lichfield. The Chapter contained mainly men who had retired to Lichfield after active careers in the service of the Crown or the Church or in the universities.

 Dean Thomas Stretton, 1390–1426

Became the first dean to be permanently resident in the Close.  

Bishop William Heyworth, 1420‑47. 

 Founded ‘Milley’s Hospital’ in Beacon Street in 1424. Currently it houses ten women. It was later rebuilt and enlarged by Archdeacon Milley, a cathedral canon, in 1502‑4.

 

Milley’s hospital.

Canon Thomas Chesterfield, c. 1447.

A canon who arranged repairs of the vicars' houses and built for them a common hall. He also wrote a history of the cathedral. 

[1] Around 755–6 Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, northeast France, compiled a rule for canons of his own church. His rule contained protocols for living in a quasi-monastic, celibate community.

[2]  W. Dugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum, 1673, (London: 1817–1830 ed.), 3, 1242. Also K. Edwards, The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages: a constitutional study with special reference to the fourteenth century, (Abingdon: 1967), 141. Also H. E. Savage, Lichfield Chapter in the twelfth century. Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, (1917), 11.

[3] H. E. Savage (1917), 13.

[4] H. E. Savage, The Book of Alan de Assheborn, Unpub article in Cathedral Library. (1922).