The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the
Chapter of
the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. The current office of
Dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
originated after the
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precursor office was the
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be low ...
of the cathedral-monastery. The previous Dean, the Very Rev.
Robert Willis, was appointed in 2001 and retired on 16 May 2022, a day before his 75th birthday, and it was announced on 8 May 2022 that the Rev.
Jane Hedges, former
Dean of Norwich
The Dean of Norwich is the head of the Chapter of Norwich Cathedral in Norwich, England. The role is vacant since Jane Hedges' retirement on 1 May 2022.
List of deans
Early modern
*1538–1539 William Castleton (last prior)
*1539–1554 ...
, would serve as Acting Dean until a successor was appointed. The most recent Dean,
David Monteith
David Robert Malvern Monteith (born 5 June 1968) is a Northern Irish Anglican priest in the Church of England and is the current Dean of Canterbury, the senior canon of Canterbury Cathedral. He was previously the Dean of Leicester since his appo ...
was appointed in 2022 and installed on December 17, 2022 and is the 40th Dean since the Reformation, though the position of Dean and Prior as the religious head of the community is almost identical so the line is unbroken back to the time of the foundation of the community by Saint Augustine in AD 597.
List of deans
820–1080
Version on show in the Cathedral (west end)
*
Ceolnoth
Ceolnoth or Ceolnoþ (; died 870) was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. Although later chroniclers stated he had previously held ecclesiastical office in Canterbury, there is no contemporary evidence of this, and his first appearance i ...
820
*
Aegelwyn 830
*
Alfric
*
Kensyn
*
Maurice Maurice may refer to:
People
* Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
* Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...
*
Aelfwyn 930
*
Alsine 935
*
Aelfwyn II 951
*
Athelsine
*
Aegelnoth 984 (Æthelnoth, later Archbishop of Canterbury)
*
Egelric 1020
*
Goderic 1058
Victoria County History, 1926
*Cuba, occurs 798
*Beornheard, occurs 805
*Heahfrith, occurs 813
*
Ceolnoth
Ceolnoth or Ceolnoþ (; died 870) was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. Although later chroniclers stated he had previously held ecclesiastical office in Canterbury, there is no contemporary evidence of this, and his first appearance i ...
, resigned 833
*Æthelwine, occurs c. 860
*Eadmund, occurs c.871
*
Æthelnoth, resigned 1020
*Godric, occurs 1020, 1023
*Æthelric, resigned 1058
*Ælfric
*Ælfsige
*Ælfwine
*Ælfwine
*Kynsige
*Maurice
Priors of Canterbury
About a century after becoming a monastic foundation late in the 10th century, the Cathedral started to be headed by a
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be low ...
rather than a dean. It would next have a dean after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Post-Reformation Deans
Early modern
*1541–1567
Nicholas Wotton
Nicholas Wotton (c. 1497 – 26 January 1567) was an English diplomat, cleric and courtier.
Life
He was a son of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, and a descendant of Sir Nicholas Wotton, Lord Mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, ...
(the first dean; simultaneously
Dean of York
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
)
*1567–1584
Thomas Godwin
*1584–1597
Richard Rogers
Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...
*1597–1615
Thomas Nevile
Thomas Nevile (died 1615) was an English clergyman and academic who was Dean of Peterborough (1591–1597) and Dean of Canterbury (1597–1615), Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge (1582–1593), and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge ...
*1615–1619
Charles Fotherby
*1619–1625
John Boys
*1625–1643
Isaac Bargrave
Isaac Bargrave (1586 – January 1643) was an English royalist churchman, Dean of Canterbury from 1625 to 1643.
Life
Early life
Isaac was the sixth son of Robert Bargrave, of Bridge, Kent, and was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where h ...
*1643
George Aglionby
George Aglionby (c.1603–1643) was an English Royalist churchman, nominated in 1643 as Dean of Canterbury. He was a member of the Great Tew intellectual circle around Lucius Cary, and a friend and correspondent of Thomas Hobbes.
Life
He was the ...
*1643–1672
Thomas Turner
*1672–1689
John Tillotson
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.
Curate and rector
Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth ...
*1689–1691
John Sharp (afterwards
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers ...
, 1691)
*1691–1704
George Hooper
*1704–1728
George Stanhope
George Stanhope (5 March 1660 – 18 March 1728) was a clergyman of the Church of England, rising to be Dean of Canterbury and a Royal Chaplain. He was also amongst the commissioners responsible for the building of fifty new churches in Lo ...
*1728–1733
Elias Sydall
Elias Sydall (1672–1733) was an English bishop of St David's and bishop of Gloucester.
Life
He was the son of a glover of Norwich. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1688, graduating B.A. in 1692 and M.A. in 1695. He became ...
*1734–1760
John Lynch
*1760–1766
William Freind
*1766–1770
John Potter
*1770–1771
Brownlow North
Brownlow North (17 July 1741 – 12 July 1820) was a bishop of the Church of England.
Early life, family and education
Brownlow was born on 17 July 1741 in Chelsea, London, Chelsea, Middlesex, Great Britain, the only son of Francis North, 1st ...
*1771–1775
John Moore
*1775–1781 The Hon
James Cornwallis
*1781–1790
George Horne
*1790–1792
William Buller
*1793–1797
Folliott Cornewall
Folliott Herbert Walker Cornewall (bapt. 9 May 1754 – 5 September 1831) was an English bishop of three sees.
Life
Folliott (or Folliot) Herbert Cornewall was baptised in Ludlow on 9 May 1754, the second surviving son of Captain Frederick Cornew ...
Late modern
*1797–1809
Thomas Powys
*1809–1825
Gerrard Andrewes
Gerrard Andrewes (3 April 1750 – 2 June 1825) was an English churchman, Dean of Canterbury from 1809.
Life
He was the son of Gerrard Andrewes, vicar of Syston and St. Nicholas, Leicester, and master of the Leicester Grammar School. The younger ...
*1825–1827
Hugh Percy
*1827–1845
Richard Bagot
*1845–1857
William Lyall
*1857–1871
Henry Alford
Henry Alford (7 October 181012 January 1871) was an English churchman, theologian, textual critic, scholar, poet, hymnodist, and writer.
Life
Alford was born in London, of a Somerset family, which had given five consecutive generations of c ...
*1871–1895
Robert Payne Smith
Robert Payne Smith (7 November 1818 – 31 March 1895) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church from 1865 until 1870, when he was appointed Dean of Canterbury by Queen Victoria on the advice of Wil ...
*1895–1903
Frederic Farrar
*1903–1924
Henry Wace
*1924–1929
George Bell
*1929–1931
Dick Sheppard
*1931–1963
Hewlett Johnson
Hewlett Johnson (25 January 1874 – 22 October 1966) was an English priest of the Church of England, Marxist Theorist and Stalinist. He was Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury, where he acquired his nickname "The Red Dean of Ca ...
*1963–1976
Ian White-Thomson
Ian Hugh White-Thomson (18 December 1904 – 11 January 1997) was an Anglican priest and Dean of Canterbury from 1963 to 1976.
The son of a former Bishop of Ely, White-Thomson was educated at Harrow School, where he was a Monitor and in the Foo ...
*1976–1986
Victor de Waal
*1986–2000
John Simpson
*2000–2022
Robert Willis
*2022
Jane Hedges acting
*2022–present
David Monteith
David Robert Malvern Monteith (born 5 June 1968) is a Northern Irish Anglican priest in the Church of England and is the current Dean of Canterbury, the senior canon of Canterbury Cathedral. He was previously the Dean of Leicester since his appo ...
(institution occurred on 17 December 2022)
References
External links
*
Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857: volume 3'
{{Deans in the Church of England
Deans of Canterbury
The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precu ...