Lichfield recasts its name

     Abstract.  King Wulfhere of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon named the site of the early church as Licitfelda, which quickly became Licetfelda. In the 11th century, the name began to change and by the 12th century the prefix Lich appeared. The conventional view is Lich refers to corpses resulting from a fabled slaughter of Christians. It took until the 17th century for the current name to be fully established.

From the 7th to the 11th century Licetfelda was Lichfield’s name. In the 1086 Domesday Book Lichfield was spelt Lecefelle, Licefelle and Licefeld,^[1] and clearly the name was going through some kind of transition.

            During the next century the name changed and Licet or Licit became Lich, though exactly when the presumably soft-sounding Licet became the harsher Lich is uncertain.[2] In William of Malmesbury’s ‘Gesta Pontificum Anglorum,’ written early in the 12th century it was spelt Lichefeld (Lichefeldensis). Another early Liche was found in the margin of a book and written by Matthew Paris, c. 1200–1259, a chronicler for St Albans Abbey. He wrote in a margin of his copy of the ‘Book of St Albans’ the name of Lichefeld and Lichfeld.[3] He added, this meant the death of a thousand Christians was located at Lichfield. Lichfield was interpreted as the site of a field of corpses.^[4] Thus Liche was now connected to a folklore story of slaughtered Christians somewhere in the area, see the post, Lichfield's founding myth, for all the detail.

 

Book of St Albans marginalia. Hoc apud Lichefeld evenit. Inde Lichfeld dicitur quasi campus cadaverum. Lich enim Anglice cadaver sive corpus mortui dicitur.

 

A manuscript fragment dealing with the topography of Lichfield survived among the cathedral muniments in the 17th century, but has since been lost. It was almost certainly compiled in the mid or late-13th century, probably in Lichfield. It claimed the city was named Lichfeldensis because once upon a time a battle had been fought there; the city took its name from the corpses.[5]

 

In the Takamiya MS 62 of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, dated 1375‑1400,[6] the spellings of Lindfsi, Lindfelth and Lythfeld are handwritten in the margin and this might still be a transitional time of spelling, or the writer was uncertain of the name.

 

Marginalia in the Takamiya MS

 

It appears the uptake of Lich was not universal and immediate. According to Duignan[7] in the 12th-century, the variants of the name were Lechesfelde, Lichesfelde, Lichefelde and Licheffeld. The royal clerks preferred Liche, and the variants Lichesfeld and Licheffeld.[8] A grant from King Richard I to Bishop Muschamp dated 1202 has Lichefeld.[9] In the 13th-century it was Lychefelde and Lichefeld. A cartulary of Tutbury Priory, 1253, has the name abbreviated to Lich. In 1301, five citizens gave some land to obtain rent and pay for maintenance of a water conduit in Lychefeld. Throughout this time of spelling Lichfield in various ways its association with death and corpses persisted. In the 16th-century editions of Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ the spellings were Lychefield, Lichefield and Lichfield. By the 17th and 18th century the town’s name was written Lichesfeld,^[10] Lichfeld,^[11] and Litchfield.^{[12],[13],[14]} The current spelling of the name was established in Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, 1755. He defined Lichfield, as the field of the dead, a city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred Christians.

 

Shield on the bridge in Upper St John’s Street showing the martyred Christians

 

Using Lich denoting death and recasting an Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) name seems odd, but the story of slaughtered Christians and their burial somewhere in Lichfield was fervently believed for at least five medieval centuries. Some must have thought a local saint was enhanced with the martyrdom of many Christians. Some must have reasoned a gory ‘founding myth’ attracted visitors to the markets or raised sympathy for the resident Christians? Perhaps, it chimed with outbreaks of the plague, loss from the great 1291 town fire, or the slaughter in the Civil War. Perhaps, the early origin of the name and its close association with disliked bishops and a separated cathedral was a preferred re-interpretation by the townspeople in a prosperous city. Maybe it was another example of removing the Anglo-Saxon tropes and adding Norman and Plantagenet. It is even possible the change from written Latin to spoken Middle English caused a poor translation and the recast name simply evolved.

 

There have been many attempts in the past to explain the name of Lichfield etymologically and they have been reviewed by Greenslade.[15] See also the post, Current explanation for the name of Lichfield. Many of these explanations are close to being absurd, some are derivations on flimsy evidence and none have complete acceptance. It is time to see the origin of the name arising from the management of a site by an Anglo-Saxon king to have a particular bishop at the heart of his forming diocese. Approval was necessary for building an early, long-lasting kingdom. Lichfield is an approved centre!

 

Summary of evolution of name

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[1] Folio 247r Domesday Book, National Archives reference E 31/2/2/1932.

[2] D. Johnson, 'Lichfield and St Amphibalus: the story of a legend', South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions 1986--1987, (1988), 28, 1. Johnson stated, “Antiquarian speculation on the meaning of the name may even have been partly responsible for the emergence in the 12th-century of the modern spelling of the name.”

[3] Matthew's interest in etymologies occurs on fol. 25v, digital image 57, of the Book of St Albans in the library of Trinity College Dublin.

[4] See note 16, D. Johnson (1988),5.

[5] Ibid D. Johnson, (1988), 28, 6. Plus note 28, The fragment was first printed, apparently from the original MS., by Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, iii (1673 ed.), 219. The transcript contains demonstrable errors elsewhere and is evidently not by Dugdale.

[6] Kept in the Beinicke Library, Yale University. The name is on 48r page, digital image 99.

[7] W. H. Duignan, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names, (London: 1902), 91.

[8] Ibid D. Johnson (1988), 2.

[9] Magnum Registrum Album 223.

[10] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. Volume 1 (London: 1691).

[11] R. Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford: 1686)

[12] W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (1673). Volume 6, part 3, 1238.

[13] W. Stukeley, Itinerarium Curiosum: or an account of the antiquities and remarkable curiosities in nature and art observed in travels through Great Britain, (London: 1776).

[14] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain. (London: 1738).

[15] M. W. Greenslade (ed.), 'Lichfield: The place and street names, population and boundaries ', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), 37-42. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp37-42