An analysis of the bishops of Rochester by the Revd John Prior and Alan McLean. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2010-2011.

Some years ago it was suggested that the names and dates of the Bishops of Rochester should be prepared for possible display on the south wall of the Presbytery, opposite the list of Priors and Deans on the north wall. Although we carried out research, a plan to publish a list in the 2008 issue was shelved because various authoritative sources had different lists and it was feared that ours might cause controversy.

The Editor nevertheless believes that Friends might like a list, even one with provisos. To avoid controversy, he invited us to explain some of the differences and the interesting history behind them, perhaps to stimulate future research. The Editor's table which follows is not prescriptive. It seeks to reconcile other listings with information engraved on the Bishop's Crozier, making Bishop James the 107th.

Filtering the many data sources has been complex. Differences have broadly arisen through some Bishops being appointed but not enthroned for various reasons. In one case the Latin spelling and an Anglicised version are entered for the same Bishop. Two other names appear in "Bell's Cathedral Series" without dates and are not mentioned in any of the other lists. Early on we found that data from A Handbook of British Chronology by F M Powicke and Bell's Rochester book differed considerably.

The Diocesan Office told us that its source for listing Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali as the 106th was Wikipedia, which surprised us. In the table, the numbering has been made consistent with this conclusion and we have stated the sources in each case. If all sources could be believed, our present Bishop could lie anywhere between 107th and 114th. Research still continues and further information might, for example, be found in the libraries of Lambeth or Canterbury.

We discovered the list, sold at the Cathedral Shop some years ago, and then remembered that the Crosier, thought to date from about 1905, had the names and dates of the previous Bishops engraved on it. This may well have been based on a list in an 18th century volume compiled by Hasted, which seems to agree with that of the Crosier, so far as it goes. Otherwise all the lists differ from each other in some respects. We have not excluded names unless sure that appointment had not been made.

But we can with certainty begin our account with Justus, who was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 604 by St Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury. His cathedral was built on land given by King Ethelbert of Kent, who joined his Queen, Bertha, in her Christian faith. The name of Paulinus is equally well-known, driven from York in 633 and dying in 644.

His successor was Ithamar, the first native Englishman to be Bishop of Rochester," a Kentish man born" as the 18th century historian Edward Hasted describes him.

Although the names of the Saxon Bishops are known, for the most part, most of us find the period a bit hazy and the names are subject to different spellings. There is doubt about the number of Bishops named Godwin; some sources show two, others three. Another problem is that of John of Sees, who was appointed in 1137, the year in which a major fire occurred. John died in 1142 before rebuilding was completed and, supposedly, never visited Rochester. Some scholars exclude him as he was never enthroned.

After the Norman Conquest Archbishop Lanfranc brought over Gundulf from Normandy to be Bishop in 1077. He lived until 1108 and this man of extraordinary ability proved himself as Bishop, Monk, Architect and Builder. An account of Gundulf was given in last year's Annual Report.

In the Middle Ages Church and State were entwined and some of our Bishops held the highest Offices of State, Walter de Merton (1274-1277) was Chancellor and lustice of England, John de Sheppey (1352-1360) was Treasurer of England (1326-58), John Kemp (1419-21) had been Chancellor of England and of Normandy and Keeper of the Privy Seal, and so it went on until the Reformation.

All this is evinced by monuments in the Quire and Sanctuary: those of 12th and 13th century Bishops, those matrices of brasses torn out in the Civil War, John de Sheppey unbricked by the architect Cottingham in 1830, those lovely 17" century monuments to Bishop Warner and his kin in the Chapel of St John The Evangelist, with the mediaeval tiles at its entrance. If you look up you can find Walter de Merton in a window with a cameo of a staircase in his college at Oxford. His effigy is in the North Quire Transept.

While there imagine the Shrine of William of Perth, and those of Paulinus and Ithamar elsewhere in the Quire, all destroyed at the Reformation.

For the church in England, the sixteenth was the most critical century. Perhaps the greatest of all Bishops after Gundulf was John Fisher, a holy man, a scholar and friend of the poor in Rochester, whose statue is on the Pulpitum Screen.

For refusing to recognise Henry VIll as Head of the Church of England he was beheaded on 22 June 1535 at the very Tower which Gundulf had built. In Mary Tudor's reign it was Nicholas Ridley (Bishop 1547-1550) and Hugh Latimer who were burnt for their Protestant beliefs in 1555.

The income from the bishopric was small and in 1666 Bishop John Dolben was unable to retain his deanery of Westminster, 'In Commendam' as it was called. The brilliant Francis Atterbury became Bishop in 1713, and, as a Jacobite, fell out with George I in 1714. He was banished and died in exile in 1723. Before him Thomas Sprat had been Bishop since 1685.

When writing about the Bishops of Rochester we need to remember that in the Middle Ages, the diocese was small; one archdeaconry consisting of what is now Medway, some parishes to its south, eg Halling and Trottiscliffe, and some to the west, eg Cobham and Gravesend. But from 1836, the diocesan boundary changed several times. By an amazing arrangement Rochester was deprived of most of its parishes south of the Thames and most of Hertfordshire and Essex were added. Bromley Palace, the Bishop's home, was sold and a new palace built in red brick at Danbury in Essex. It is emblazoned with the arms of Bishop George Murray.

The railways may have helped travel to distant parishes but it was hardly convenient. So a change was made. In 1877 a new Diocese of St Albans was created and Thomas Leigh Claughton was appointed Bishop, taking his throne from Rochester with him!

The other half of the change was that the eastern half of Surrey, then in the Winchester diocese, was added to and this included all the Thameside parishes and Southwark. Bishop Thorold decided to live in the centre of his diocese and decided on Selsdon Park, now a hotel, near Croydon. Upon his translation to Winchester in 1891 he was succeeded by Randall Thomas Davidson, confidant of Queen Victoria and a very wise man. He decided that he should live in the midst of his teeming population and built a new See House in Kensington, destroyed in the Blitz. But before that the diocese of Southwark had been formed and Rochester again was small. Randall Davidson, now Archbishop, negotiated for a good number of Canterbury parishes to be transferred to Rochester, mostly against their will! Only in 1920 did the Bishop come to live in Bishopscourt.

Thus our account is brought into living memory and many Friends will recall with pleasure Bishops Chavasse, Say, Turnbull and Nazir-Ali, all in their own way dedicated men.

And now we welcome Bishop Langstaff, to bring this account, for the time being at least, to an end.

A possible listing inferred by the Editor from the authors' research findings


1	Justus ^A	604
2	Romanus^A	624
3	Paulinus (BHP)	625
4	Ythamar (HPW)	644
5	Damian (BP) Damianus (H)	655
6	Putta^A	669
7	Cuichelm (HPW)	676
8	Gebmund^A	678
9	Tobias (HP)	706
10	Ealdwulf, Alduulf ^A	727
11	Dunn, Duina (BH)	741
12	Eardwulf ^A	747
13	Diora (HP)	765
14	Waermund 1 (HP)	805
15	Beornmod ^A	805
16	Tathnoth (HPW) Godwin 1 (HW) Beadunoth (HW, note 1)	844 c851 868
17	Waermund II (P)	862
18	Cutherwulf ^A	868
19	Swithulf ^A	880
20	Choelmund (P)	904
21	Burrhic (HPW)	934
22	Chinefurth (HPW) Boerhtsige (PW note 2)	955 938
23	Daniel (PW, note 3)	955
24	Alfstan or Athelstan (HW)	984
25	Godwin I or II (HP)	986
26	Godwin Il or III (HP)	c1011
27	Siward (HPB)	1058
28	Arnost or Ernost^A	1076
29	Gundulf ^A	1077
30	Ralph d'Escure^A	1108
31	Ernulf ^A	1115
32	John^A John of Sees (H, note 4)	1125 1137
33	Ascelin (BHW)	1142
34	Walter^A	1147
36	Waleran (Gualeran)^A	1182
37	Gilbert de Glanville^A	1185
38	Benedict de Sauesetun^A	1214
39	Henry Sanford^A	1226
40	Richard de Wendover^A	1238
41	Laurance de St. Martin ^A	1250
42	Walter de Merton ^A	1274
43	John de Bradfield^A John de Kyrkeby (H, note 6)	1277
44	Thomas Ingoldsthorpe^A	1284
45	Thomas de Wouldham^A	1291
46	Hamo de Hythe ^A	1319
47	John de Sheppey^A	1353
48	William of Whittlesea^A	1362
49	Thomas Tirilleck^A John de Hertley (H, note 6)	1364
50	Thomas Brinton^A John Barnet (H, note 6)	1373
51	William de Bottle(l)sham^A	1389
52	John de Botllesham^A	1401
53	Richard Young^A	1404
54	John Kemp (or Kempe)^A John Spofford (H, note 6)	1419
55	John Langdon^A	1421
56	Thomas Brunce (Brown)^A	1435
57	William Wells^A	1436
58	John Lowe^A	1445
59	Thomas Rotherham(Scott)^A	1468
60	John Alcock^A	1472
61	John Russell^A	1476
62	Edmund Audley^A	1480
63	Thomas Savage^A	1492
64	Richard FitzJames^A	1496
65	John Fisher ^A	1504
66	John Hilsey (Hildesleigh)^A	1535
67	Nicholas Heath^A	1540
68	Henry Holbeach^A	1543
69	Nicholas Ridley^A	1547
70	John Ponet (Poynet)^A	1550
71	John Scory^A	1551
72	Maurice Griffin or Griffith^A Edmund Allen (note 5)	1554 1559
73	Edmund Gheast or Guest^A	1559
74	Edmund Freke^A	1572
75	John Piers^A	1576
76	John Young^A	1578
77	William Barlow^A	1605
78	Richard Neile^A	1608
79	John Buckeridge^A	1611
80	Walter Curll (BW/) Curle (H) or Curil (P)	1628
81	John Bowle^A	1630
82	John Warner ^A	1638
83	John Dolben ^A	1666
84	Francis Turner^A	1683
85	Thomas Sprat ^A	1684
86	Francis Atterbury ^A	1713
87	Samuel Bradford ^A	1723
88	Joseph Wilcocks ^A	1731
89	Zachary Pearce ^A	1756
90	John Thomas ^A	1774
91	Samuel Horsley ^A	1793
92	Thomas Dampier^A	1802
93	Walter King^A	1809
94	Hugh Percy^A	1827
95	George Murry^A	1827
96	Joseph Cotton Wigram^A	1860
97	Thomas Leigh Claughton^A	1867
98	Anthony Wilson Thorold^A	1877
99	Randell Thomas Davidson^A	1891
100	Richard Stuart Talbot ^A	1895
101	Reginald John Harmer (PW)	1905
102	Martin Linton Smith (PW)	1930
103	Christopher M. Chavasse (PW)	1940
104	Richard David Say (PW)	1961
105	Anthony Michael Turnbull (PW)	1988
106	Michael Nazir-ali (PW)	1994
107	James Langstaff (W)	2010
108	Jonathan Gibbs	2022

Key to columns in the table and principal references used in the research Col 1 Listing according to the Bishop's Crozier, bearing names and dates from 604 to 1939 (107)*

Col 2 Names, Notes and Source used, from the following:

B: Bell's Cathedral Series - Rochester, published 1898 (108)*

H: Edward Hasted's City and Liberty of Rochester 1782 (112* although he cites Samuel Horsley as 91st Bishop, thus coming into line with the Crozier)

P: Handbook of British Chronology by F M Powick, published 1949 (109*)

W: Wikipedia (111)*

A denotes all the above ((BHPW);^A denotes all the above, post-Hasted (BPW) (Crockford's Clerical Directory gives 109)*

Bracketed figure in italics is the number of Bishops inferred from each source.

Notes in Column 2 Bishop only in 868, (if then).

Not engraved on the Crozier.

Possibly Bishop of Selsey or Jean de Séez: 'caretaker' Bishop only Known to have died before taking office.

Never installed, for other reasons.

FoRC Annual Reports

The bishops of Rochester, from 604

Rochester Cathedral

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