The Bishop of Chester is the
Ordinary of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
Diocese of Chester in the
Province of York
The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 14 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...
.
The diocese extends across most of the
historic county boundaries of
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, including the
Wirral Peninsula
The Wirral Peninsula (), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...
and has its
see in the City of Chester where the seat is located at the
Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was formerly the
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
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
collegiate church of St John the Baptist until 1102. The present diocese was formed in 1541 under King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
.
Mark Tanner's
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
as Bishop of Chester was
confirmed on 15 July 2020.
The Confirmation of Election of Mark Simon Austin Tanner as Bishop of Chester
'. The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York, 15 July 2020.
Earliest times

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
Bishop of Mercia
The Bishop of Lichfield is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwi ...
or even
Bishop of Lichfield. After the
Council of London in 1075 had decreed the transfer of all episcopal sees to cities, Peter, Bishop of Lichfield, removed his seat from Lichfield to Chester, and became known as Bishop of Chester. There he chose as his cathedral
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
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
, without papal sanction, created six new episcopal sees, one of which was Chester. The
archdeaconry of Chester, from the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, and that of Richmond, from York, were combined to form the new see, and it was laid down that the abbey church, now the cathedral, was to be served by a dean and six prebends, the former abbot becoming the first dean. At first the diocese was annexed to the
Province of Canterbury
The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses).
Overview
The Province consi ...
, but by another Act of Parliament it was soon transferred to that of York. The first bishop was the Provincial of the
Carmelite
The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...
s,
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
The Bishop of Bangor is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Diocese of Bangor of the Church in Wales. The Episcopal see, see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Bangor Cathedral, Cathedral Church of Sa ...
, 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.
George Cotes
George Cotes (or Cotys, Coates) (died 1556) was an England, English academic and Catholic Bishop of Chester during the English Reformation.
He had been a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford in 1522, and then became a Fellow of Magdalen College, O ...
, Master of Balliol and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and lecturer in theology, was appointed bishop by the Roman See. In 1556 he was succeeded by
Cuthbert Scott, an able theologian and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. On the accession of
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
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
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, including the
Wirral Peninsula
The Wirral Peninsula (), known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpo ...
and has its
see in the City of Chester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was formerly the
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
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.
Assistant bishops
Among those who have served as assistant bishops in the diocese have been:
*19341948:
Norman Tubbs,
Archdeacon of Chester and
Canon Residentiary until 1937,
Dean of Chester thereafter; former
Bishop in Tinnevelly and
Bishop of Rangoon
*19621965 (res.):
Tom Greenwood, Vicar of
Whitegate and former
Bishop of Yukon
References
;Notes
;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
*
External links
Crockford's Clerical Directory – Listings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop of Chester
*
Chester
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
Bishops of Chester
The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary (officer), Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York.
The diocese extends across most of the Historic counties of England, historic county boundaries of Cheshire, includi ...
1541 establishments in England