Staffordshire with the City and County of Lichfield

Staffordshire’s population exceeded 92,000 by the mid-seventeenth century. The cathedral city of Lichfield, the largest and most prosperous conurbation in the shire, was administered as an independent borough, with its own officials and justices. By contrast, Stafford, the county town, was only half the size, with 1,500 inhabitants. William Camden noted endemic poverty in the crowded communities of the Trent Valley as well as the sparsely populated moorlands further north. Staffordshire’s justices may therefore have had good grounds for pleading that their county was too impoverished to pay Ship Money in 1637. The county’s leading magnate, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, continued to wield considerable influence even after Charles I dismissed him as Lord Lieutenant for refusing to pay the Forced Loan. The longstanding rivalry between the Paget and Devereux families may have influenced Lord Thomas Paget’s decision to desert Parliament and declare for the King just before the outbreak of war. The regiment Paget raised from his Beaudesert tenants would distinguish itself in numerous campaigns – most notably under Sir George Lisle – before being destroyed at Naseby.

Charles I’s progress through Staffordshire in September 1642 revealed that whilst many leading gentlemen in the county supported him, the common people in towns such as Uttoxeter, Stafford, Walsall and Wolverhampton were less enthusiastic. The moorland communities were alienated when Yorkshire royalists rampaged through north Staffordshire that October. Staffordshire justices tried to raise a bipartisan force to keep the war out of their county, but neither the King nor Parliament could afford to tolerate such neutralism, as the roads which ran through the county were strategically important to both sides. Staffordshire’s sparse natural resources could not sustain large field armies, so sizable incursions – such as the battle of Hopton Heath in March 1643, and Queen Henrietta-Maria’s storming of Burton-upon-Trent the following July – were relatively rare. The landscape was instead pockmarked by numerous small garrisons. Their incessant raids on each other’s territories, and the exploitation of meagre resources around their own localities, exposed the civilian population to the prolonged miseries of low-intensity warfare.

Lichfield endured three sieges. The Earl of Chesterfield, who had garrisoned the cathedral close, was besieged by parliamentarian forces in March 1643. Despite the death of the parliamentarian commander Lord Brooke, Chesterfield was forced to surrender. Parliament’s garrison only lasted a month before it capitulated to a taskforce led by Prince Rupert. It would be March 1646 before the parliamentarians mounted the final siege. By the time the royalist commander, Sir Thomas Tyldesley negotiated an honourable surrender in July, the cathedral and its close had been reduced to ruins.

The county was briefly involved in the Second Civil War of 1648, when a large body of Scottish cavalry was trapped in Uttoxeter by General John Lambert. The county militia were mobilised during the Third Civil War of 1650-51, but do not appear to have been involved in any serious fighting.

Claimants resident in the county

Numbers, types and declared allegiances of claimants

Although Lichfield’s court records have not survived for this period, the county’s quarter sessions rolls and order books contain a wealth of information regarding local war relief. Only three parliamentarian claimants are listed in the parliamentary county committee records, indicating that the Staffordshire Bench shouldered most of the responsibility for relieving the county’s maimed soldiers, widows and orphans. Staffordshire’s copious records afford valuable insights into the political and social impacts of the Civil Wars in the English provinces, and the local authorities’ attempts to mitigate the damage. The vast majority of surviving petitions and certificates relate to parliamentarian claimants; other documents, such as treasurer’s accounts, provide a larger haul of royalists’ names, although such entries generally have less information regarding the claimants’ personal circumstances and war service. The parliamentarian documents indicate that many Staffordshire men fought outside the county. Interestingly, although legislation passed by the Cavalier Parliament in 1662 terminated parliamentarian pensions, Staffordshire justices appear to have utilised Elizabethan legislation to make exceptions for soldiers who had served in Ireland.

Gratuities paid in Staffordshire

	Min	Max	Mean	Median	Mode	TOTAL
Maimed Soldiers	5s	£1 5s	13s 5d	10s	£1	£4 14s
Royalists	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Parliamentarians	5s	£1 5s	13s 5d	10s	£1	£4 14s
War Widows	5s	£13 6s 8d	£3 4s 3d	£1 10s	£1 10s	£28 18s 2d
Royalists	7s 6d	£1 19s	£1 5s 6d	£1 10s	n/a	£3 16s 6d
Parliamentarians	5s	£13 6s 8d	£4 3s 7d	£1 5s	£1	£2 6s 8d
Other Dependents	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Royalists	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Parliamentarians	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
ALL	5s	£13 6s 8d	£2 2s	£1	£1	£33 12s 2d
Royalists	7s 6d	£1 19s	£1 5s 6d	£1 10s	n/a	£3 16s 6d
Parliamentarians	5s	£13 6s 8d	£2 5s 10d	£1	£1	£29 15s 8d

Pensions paid in Staffordshire

	Min	Max	Mean	Median	Mode
Maimed Soldiers	£1	£5	£2 8s 9d	£2	£2
Royalists	£1	£4	£2 4s	£2	£1
Parliamentarians	£1	£5	£2 10s	£2	£2
War Widows	£2	£2 12s	£2 4s	£2 4s	£2
Royalists	£2 12s	£2 12s	£2 12s	£2 12s	£2 12s
Parliamentarians	£2	£2	£2	£2	£2
Other Dependents	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Royalists	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Parliamentarians	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
ALL	£1	£5	£2 8s 3d	£2	£2
Royalists	£1	£4	£2 5s 4d	£2 6s	£1
Parliamentarians	£1	£5	£2 9s 1d	£2	£2

The extant archival records contain far greater documentation of parliamentarian veterans and widows than royalists. This may possibly be an indication of the balance of popular allegiance within the county, but it is more likely to be a fluke of survival. The even spread of claimants across the shire suggests that Staffordshire was a deeply divided community. Whereas the value of gratuities appears to have been somewhat arbitrary, both Interregnum and Restoration regimes appear to have been reasonably consistent as regards the value of pensions.

Claimants resident in the county

Numbers, types and declared allegiances of claimants

Gratuities paid in Staffordshire

Pensions paid in Staffordshire

Further Reading