Bishop of Chester

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This article is about the modern bishops. For the ancient bishops, see Bishop of Lichfield.

Bishop of Chester
Bishopric
anglican
Incumbent:
Mark Tanner
Location
Ecclesiastical provinceYork
ResidenceBishop's House, Chester
Information
First holderJohn Bird
Established1541
DioceseChester
CathedralChester Cathedral

The Bishop of Chester is the

Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York
.

The diocese extends across most of the

Benedictine Abbey of Saint Werburgh
, being elevated to cathedral status in 1541. The Bishop's residence is Bishop's House, Chester.

Cheshire previously held a bishopric from 1075 when the seat was at the

King Henry VIII. Mark Tanner's election as Bishop of Chester was confirmed on 15 July 2020.[1][2]

Earliest times

Arms of the Bishop of Chester: Gules three mitres with their lables Or.[3]

Chester at various periods in its history had a bishop and a cathedral, though till the early sixteenth century only intermittently. Even before the Norman conquest the title Bishop of Chester is found in documents applied to prelates who would be more correctly described as

collegiate church of Saint John the Baptist
, an arrangement which continued until 1102.

The next bishop, however, transferred the see to Coventry on account of the rich monastery there, though he retained the episcopal palace at Chester. The Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield was of enormous extent, and it was probably found convenient to have something analogous to a cathedral at Chester, even though the cathedral itself was elsewhere; accordingly the church of St John ranked as a cathedral for a considerable time, and had its own dean and chapter of secular canons down to the time of the Reformation. But the chief ecclesiastical foundation in Chester was the Benedictine monastery of St Werburgh, the great church of which finally became the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The site had been occupied even during the Christian period of the Roman occupation by a church dedicated to Ss. Peter and Paul, and rededicated to St Werburgh and St Oswald during the Saxon period. The church was served by a small chapter of secular canons until 1093, when

Hugh, Earl of Chester
, converted it into a great Benedictine monastery, with the co-operation of St Anselm, then Prior of Bec, who sent Richard, one of his monks, to be the first abbot. A new Norman church was built by him and his successors.

This monastery, though suffering loss of property both by the depredations of the Welsh and the inroads of the sea, prospered, and in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the monks transformed their Norman church into a gothic building.

Tudor period

The last of the abbots of Chester was John, or Thomas, Clark, who resigned his abbey, valued at £1,003 5s. 11d. per annum, to the king at the time of the

Dissolution of the Monasteries
.

In 1541

Carmelites, John Bird, a doctor of divinity who had attracted the king's attention by his sermons preached against the pope's supremacy. Having already been rewarded by appointment as Bishop of Bangor
, he was now translated to Chester. On the accession of Mary he was deprived as being a married man, and died as Vicar of Dunmow in 1556.

Despite the origins of the diocese, it was recognised by the Roman See for the space of Queen Mary's reign.

Elizabeth I
he was one of the four Roman Catholic bishops chosen to defend Roman Catholic doctrine at the conference at Westminster, and immediately after this he was sent to the Tower and was deprived in 1559. Being released on bail, he contrived to escape to the Continent. He died at Louvain, on 9 October 1564.

Subsequent centuries

The present diocese covers most of the traditional county of

Benedictine Abbey of Saint Werburgh
, being elevated to cathedral status in 1541.

List of bishops

List of bishops of Chester after the foundation of the modern diocese of Chester in 1541.

Earlier the midland diocese had for a time had its see at Chester, for which see List of the Bishops of the Diocese of Lichfield and its precursor offices.

Bishops of Chester
From Until Incumbent Notes
1541 1554 John Bird Translated from Bangor; deprived by Mary I.
1554 1555 George Cotes Died in office.
1556 1559 Cuthbert Scott Deprived by
Elizabeth I
.
1561 1577 William Downham Died in office.
1579 1595 William Chaderton Translated to Lincoln.
1595 1596 Hugh Bellot Translated from Bangor; died in office.
1597 1604 Richard Vaughan Translated from Bangor; translated to London.
1604 1615 George Lloyd Translated from Sodor and Man; died in office.
1616 1619 Thomas Morton Translated to Lichfield and Coventry then Durham.
1619 1646 John Bridgeman Deprived of the see when the English episcopy was abolished by Parliament on 9 October 1646. Died in 1652.
1646 1660 The see was abolished during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.[4][5]
1660 1661 Brian Walton Died in office.
1662 Henry Ferne Died shortly after consecration.
1662 1668 George Hall Also Archdeacon of Canterbury; died in office.
1668 1672 John Wilkins Died in office.
1673 1686 John Pearson Died in office.
1686 1689 Thomas Cartwright Followed James II into exile after the Glorious Revolution and died of dysentery shortly after arriving in Dublin.[6]
1689 1707 Nicholas Stratford Died in office.
1708 1714 Sir William Dawes, Bt. Translated to York.
1714 1725 Francis Gastrell Died in office.
1726 1752 Samuel Peploe Died in office.
1752 1771 Edmund Keene Translated to Ely.
1771 1776 William Markham Translated to York.
1776 1787 Beilby Porteus Translated to London.
1788 1800 William Cleaver Translated to Bangor then St Asaph.
1800 1809 Henry Majendie Translated to Bangor.
1810 1812 Bowyer Sparke Translated to Ely.
1812 1824 George Henry Law Translated to Bath and Wells.
1824 1828 Charles James Blomfield Translated to London.
1828 1848 John Bird Sumner Translated to
Canterbury
.
1848 1865 John Graham Died in office.
1865 1884 William Jacobson Retired.
1884 1889 William Stubbs Translated to Oxford.
1889 1919 Francis Jayne Retired.
1919 1932 Luke Paget Translated from Stepney.
1932 1939 Geoffrey Fisher Translated to
Canterbury
.
1939 1955 Douglas Crick Translated from Stafford.
1955 1973 Gerald Ellison Translated from Willesden; translated to London.
1974 1981 Victor Whitsey Translated from Hertford.
1982 1996 Michael Baughen Retired to London and Southwark; now honorary assistant bishop in Guildford.
1996 2019 Peter Forster Retired 30 September 2019.[7]
2019 2020 Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead Acting diocesan bishop[7]
2020 present Mark Tanner Translated from Berwick[1] 15 July 2020[2]
Sources: [8][9][10]

Assistant bishops

Among those who have served as assistant bishops in the diocese have been:

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b "Diocese of Chester | Mark Tanner named as next Bishop of Chester".
  2. ^ a b https://www.chester.anglican.org/content/pages/documents/1594794583.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  3. ^ "The Armorial Bearings of the Bishops of Chester". Cheshire Heraldry Society. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  4. ^ Plant, David (2002). "Episcopalians". BCW Project. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  5. JSTOR 564164
    .
  6. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cartwright, Thomas (1634-1689)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  7. ^ a b "Diocese of Chester | Bishop Peter announces his retirement".
  8. ^ "Historical successions: Chester". Crockford's Clerical Directory. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  9. ISBN 0-521-56350-X
    .
  10. ^ Horn, J. M.; Smith, D. M.; Mussett, P. (2004). "Bishops of Chester". Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857: Volume 11: Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Manchester, Ripon, and Sodor and Man Dioceses. British History Online. pp. 37–42.
  11. ^ "Tubbs, Norman H.". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  12. ^ "Greenwood, Tom". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Bibliography
  • Haydn's Book of Dignities (1894) Joseph Haydn/Horace Ockerby, reprinted 1969
  • Whitaker's Almanack 1883 to 2004, Joseph Whitaker and Sons Ltd/A&C Black, London
  • Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Chester". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

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