LICHFIELD'.
��HIS diocese contained, until the alterations made therein by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the whole county of Stafford, except Broom and Clent, which belong to Worcester; all Derbyshire, the larger part of Warwickshire, and nearly half of Shropshire ; di- vided under the archdeaconries of Coventry'-, Staf- ford, Derby, and Salop.
The chapter of Lichfield cathedral^ consists of a dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer, who have pre- bends annexed to their dignities ; and there are twen- ty-seven other prebends, one of which, Eccleshall, is annexed to the bishopric. Out of the holders of these thirty-one prebends, the dean and four more, chosen indifferently out of the prebendaries and dignitaries, are styled canons residentiary. The archdeacons, unless they are prebendaries, have no stalls in the cathedral.
There are twelve minor canons, five of whom are called priest-vicars; and the remaining seven lay-vicars or singing-men, &c.
1 When this diocese was ori- an order in council 27th Aug. ginally founded it was called the 1846 all peculiars in this diocese bishopric of Mercia : the name were abolished.
was afterwards changed to Lich- 3 Before the Reformation there
field, then to Chester, next to Co- was also a cathedral at Coventry
ventry and Lichfield, and again where the bishops of the diocese
to Lichfield by order in council formerly held their seat. After
"22nd Dec. 1836. the dissolution of the priory of
2 The archdeaconry of Coven- Coventry, the act of parliament try was by the above order in 33 Hen. VIII. made the dean council transferred from this di- and chapter of Lichfield the sole
ocese to that of Worcester. By chapter for the bishop.
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