Register of Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 1297-1321

LRO B/A/1/1
©Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service

This is the earliest surviving register of the Bishops of Lichfield, recording the administration of the diocese in the Middle Ages. The pages are of parchment, well written, and containing all the minutiae of mediaeval diocesan business. Here you can find the ordination of clergy, their institution to local parishes, the installation of the heads of abbeys and priories and accounts of inspections, or visitations, when the bishop visited his parishes and the monasteries to check that all was well and to take action if it was not.

This is the first page of Langton’s register, consisting almost entirely of institutions and appointments pending the ordination of clergy. Among the entries are examples for Tarporley in Cheshire and Whalley in Lancashire, areas which at that time were included in the mediaeval Diocese of Lichfield.