THE ABBOTS OF CHESTER
| 1141-1157 | Ralph | 1349 - 1362 | Richard de Seynesbury |
| 1157-1174 | Robert Fitz-Nigel | 1363 - 1386 | Thomas de Newport |
| 1174-1184 | Robert II | 1386 - 1387 | William de Merston |
| 1186-1194 | Robert de Hastings | 1387 - 1413 | Henry de Sutton |
| 1194-1208 | Geoffrey | 1413 - 1434 | Thomas Erdcley |
| 1208-1226 | Hugh Grylle | 1435 - 1455 | John de Saughall |
| 1226-1228 | William Marmion | 1455 - 1485 | Richard Oldhatn |
| 1228-1240 | Walter de Pinchbeck | 1485 - 1493 | Simon Ripley |
| 1240-1249 | Roger Frend | 1493 - 1524 | John Birchenshawe |
| 1249-1265 | Thomas Capenhurst | 1524 - 1527 | Thomas Highticld |
| 1265-1291 | Simon de Whitchurch | 1527 - 1529 | Thomas Marshall |
| 1291-1323 | Thomas de Burchelles | 1529 - 1538 | John Birchenshawe |
| 1334 - 1349 | William dc Bebington | 1538 - 1540 | Thomas Clarke |
The See of Chester originated in 1075, when Peter 34th Bishop of Lichfleld, removed the seat of his diocese to this city. with the church of St. John the Baptist as a cathedral thus occasioning his sucessors to be frequently styled bishops of Chester, although the next bishop Robert de Lindsey, prebend of St. Pauls , translated the head of the see to Coventry, where retained till about 1086 , when Hugh Novant , prior of the Carthusians re-established bushed it at Lichfield Chester however , was not created a distinct and separate gee until 1541, when it was chosen as one of the six new bishoprics made by Henry VIII, and the church of the Benedictine abbey of St. Werburgh, founded in 1093 by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, was assigned as the cathedral church and rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
The diocese now consists of the entire county of Chester except parts of the parishes of Threapwood and Whitchurch, and part of Mottram in Longdendale, and It also includes portions of the parishes of Doddleston, Hawarden and Malpas, in Flintshire, of Ashton-under-Lyne, in Lancashire, and of Barthomley, in Staffordshire .There are two archdeaconries (Chester and Macclesfield), 16 rural deaneries and 284 benefices.. The revenue of the see, which in 1824 was only £1,7OO a year, was increased d by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to £4,200.
Among the Bishops of Chester may be mentioned John Bird, appointed to the see on its
creation in 1541; he had been a friar of the Carmelite order, suffragan bishop of Penrith in 1537, and bishop of
Bangor in 1539; in 1553-4 he was deprived by Mary for having married, but afterwards conforming, was employed as
suffragan to Bishop Bonner of London; he died in 1558. George Coates, his successor (1554-6), was master of Balliol
College, Oxford, 1539-45;
Thomas Morton (1616-19), and afterwards of Durham, was the author of the Book of Sports ;" Brian Walton (1660-1) was the editor of the " Hexapla Polyglot Bible ." and died 29 Nov 1661 ; John Wilkins (1668-72), an astronomer and one of the founders of the Royal Society ;
John Pearson (1673-80), author of "An Exposition of the Creed;" Sir William Dawes bart. (1708-14), archbishop of York (1714-24), and died 30 April, 1724; Beilby Porteus (1776-87), and afterwards bishop of London; Charles James Blomfield (1824-28), also translated to London, and died 5 August, 1857; John Bird Sumner (1828-48), and archbishop of Cauterbury, 1848 died at Lambeth, 6 Sept. 1862 ;
William Jacobson (1865-84), sometime Regius Professor of Diviniy at Oxford; and William Stubbs (1884-9), Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford , and Bishop of Oxford 1888-1901 . The Right Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher D.D. of Exeter College , Oxford 35th and present Bishop of Chester , was consecrated in 1932 .
