King Edward VI School, Lichfield Patriae, Scholae", is broadly translated as "for God, Country, and School". In the 18th century a number of eminent people were educated at the school. These included the great scholar and compiler of the first English dictionary, Dr. Samuel Johnson (the buildings of the former grammar school bear his name), David Garrick, the actor, and Joseph Addison, the essayist and politician. Two of the school's four houses are named after Addison and Garrick. (The other houses are named after Roger de Clinton who founded a priory in Lichfield in the 12th century and Erasmus Darwin, who lived in the City
David Garrick surmise, "that young man never had his equal as an actor, and he will never have a rival". With his success at Goodman's Fields, Charles Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane, engaged Garrick to play Chaumont on Otway's "The Orphan" (a role he first played in Ipswich) on 11 May 1742 while he used his letters patent to close down Giffard's theatre. That same month, Garrick played King Lear opposite Margaret "Peg" Woffington as Cordelia and his popular Richard III. With these successes, Fleetwood engaged Garrick for the full 1742–43 season. At the end of the London season, Garrick, along with