Armitage, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Armitage St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire.Other places in the parish include: Handsacre and Brereton. ARMITAGE (St. John), with Handsacre, a parish, in the union of Lichfield, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 3 miles (E. S. E.) from Rugeley; containing 967 inhabitants. This place was formerly called Hermitage, from a tradition that a hermit anciently resided in a sequestered spot between the church and the river Trent. The parish is intersected by the Grand Trunk canal, is skirted by the Trent, and lies on the main road from Lichfield to Uttoxeter, in a beautiful and fertile part of the county exceedingly well wooded; it comprises 1921a. 2r. 24p., whereof 821 acres are arable, 829 pasture, 100 wood, and 70 acres gardens. Bricks and tiles are made to some extent. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield; net income, £100, with a small glebe. The tithes formerly belonged to a canonry in Lichfield cathedral, which being suppressed, they have fallen to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; they have been commuted for £336. The body of the church was rebuilt, and a south aisle added, in the Norman style, in 1845, at a cost of £1500; the old porch, also, was restored: the font is curious, and very ancient. There is a place of worship for Independents; also a national school for boys and girls, established in 1839.—

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 69-73. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50759 Date accessed: 13 April 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Staffordshire BMD have indexes for births marriages and deaths. Due to March 2011 reorganisation of the registration service for South Staffordshire districts the historical registration indexes for this district have been located at the Newcastle under Lyme registration district (formerly held at Lichfield) and applications for certificates need to be directed there. Please refer to the "Updates" page of Staffordshire BMD for further information.

Church records

 * Armitage St John the Baptist Ancient Parish Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1662-1967 Mar 1662- 1989 Bur 1662-1992 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap1623-1861 Mar 1623-1836 Bur 1823-1861

Cemetery Records
The following MIs were kindly contributed by Alf Beard:


 * Some Monumental Inscriptions for St. John the Baptist's Churchyard

Census records


Poor Law Unions
Lichfield Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain