Description:Lichfield is famous for being the birthplace of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and has attracted visitors for this reason from as early as 1801. Johnson was born in Lichfield in 1709 and was the son of a man named Michael Johnson who was a bookseller living in Market Street in Lichfield.
The Sutherland Papers contain a number of letters written to Reverend George Plaxton by Samuel Johnson’s father, Michael Johnson, during the early eighteenth century. Plaxton was a close associate of the Leveson-Gower family who acted as an advisor to the family about estate management.
The first of these letters is dated 19th February 1713 and written by Michael Johnson from Lichfield. Johnson refers to a letter he had received from Plaxton enquiring after a man named Mr. Terrick. The Terrick family were also closely associated with the Leveson-Gowers. Samuel Terricke served Sir Richard Leveson (1598-1661) at Trentham during the seventeenth century. Johnson’s letter informs Plaxton about the history of the Terricke family, noting that one of the family had once lived in Lichfield but had ‘removed to London’ about ’37 years agoe’.
To learn more about Michael Johnson’s letters and bookselling in Lichfield, click on the images on the left.
Contextual Information From: 'Lichfield: From the Reformation to c.1800', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990), pp. 14-24. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42337.