The Archdeacon of St Albans is an ecclesiastical post in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

Diocese of St Albans The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese is home to more than 1.6 million people and comprises the hi ...

in the Province of Canterbury. The post has been held by Jane Mainwaring since March 2020.

History

Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Henrican reforms of the 16th century, there were Archdeacons of St Albans from within the

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

. Registers list archdeacons starting in 1420, but this old "abbey archdeaconry" is supposed to have been created in the reign of Henry III (13th century). The "diocesan archdeaconry" was newly constituted from St Albans Abbey's parishes in Hertfordshire and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

in 1550; it remained a part of the Diocese of London until 1845, when it and was transferred to the

diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signa ...

, at which point its boundaries were made to coincide with those of Hertfordshire. Thirty years later, the archdeaconries of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, and of St Albans were taken from the Rochester diocese to create the

in 1878. Shortly after the two Essex archdeaconries were erected into the

Diocese of Chelmsford The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers Essex and the five East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest (most of which wer ...

in 1914, the St Albans diocese received the ancient county

archdeaconry of Bedford The Archdeacon of Bedford is an ecclesiastical post in the Church of England Diocese of St Albans in the Province of Canterbury. Historically the post was in the Diocese of Lincoln, then from 1837 in the Diocese of Ely, England. On 13 April 1914, ...

from the Diocese of Ely; there has once again been a third archdeaconry since the split on 1 January 1997 of the Hertford archdeaconry from the Archdeaconry of St Albans.

List of archdeacons

Medieval

:''From the 13th century, there was an archdeaconry within the Abbey's jurisdiction. These "abbey archdeacons" were monks from the abbey monastery:'' *1415–bef. 1420: John Blebury *1420–bef. 1425: John Hatfield *1425–bef. 1435:

William Alnwick William Alnwick (died 1449) was an English Catholic clergyman. He was Bishop of Norwich (1426–1436) and Bishop of Lincoln (1436–1449). Educated at Cambridge, Alnwick was an ecclesiastic priest. He was probably the same hermit who lived in ...

/ Alnewyke (possibly the Bishop of Norwich and of Lincoln) *1435–bef. 1437: John Peyton *1437–bef. 1441: John Hatfield *1441–bef. 1446: Stephen London *1446–bef. 1450: William Albon *1450–bef. 1476: William of Wallingford *1476–bef. 1478: Nicholas Boston *1478–bef. 1490: John Rothebury *1490–bef. 1494: John Thornton *1494–bef. 1495: Thomas Newland/ Newlonde *1495–bef. 1505: Richard Runham *1505–bef. 1506: John Stonewell/ Stonywell *1506: John Killingworth *1506–bef. 1509: John Albon *1509–bef. 1512: John Mainard/ Maynard *1512–bef. 1514: Richard Runham *1514–bef. 1517: Thomas Marshall *1517–bef. 1531: Thomas Kyngesbury *1531: Egidius Ferrers *1531–bef. 1539: Thomas Kyngesbury *1539–1550: William East/ Este

Early modern

:''On 1 April 1550, letters patent annexed the abbey's parishes to the Diocese of London. Not long after, the diocesan archdeaconry was erected and East (re-)appointed:'' *1550–bef. 1557 (res.): William Este *26 February 1557–bef. 1560 (deprived): James Dugdale (deprived) *17 July 1560–bef. 1581 (res.): David Kempe *3 January 1581–bef. July 1581 (res.):

Giles Lawrence Giles Lawrence, DCL was an English Anglican priest in the 16th century. Lawrence was born in Gloucestershire and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford from 1548 to 1553. He held livings in Mine ...

*5 July 1581–aft. 1602: William Hutchinson *bef. 1626–bef. 1631 (d.): Thomas Raymond *14 November 1631 – 25 June 1644 (d.):

Thomas Westfield Thomas Westfield (1573 – 25 June 1644) was an English churchman, Bishop of Bristol and member of the Westminster Assembly. Life He was born in the parish of St. Mary's, Ely, in 1573, and went to the free school there under Master Spight. He proc ...

(''in commendam'' as

Bishop of Bristol A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

from 1642) *19 December 1660–bef. 1664 (d.): Mark Frank *30 June 1664 – 24 April 1671 (d.): Christopher Shute *28 April 1671 – 19 July 1683 (d.): William Bell *9 August 1683–bef. 1688 (d.): Edward Carter *4 June 1688–bef. 1713 (d.): John Cole *21 April 1713–September 1715 (d.): Lionel Gatford *6 October 1715 – 13 September 1738 (d.):

Philip Stubbs Philip Stubbs (Stubbes) (c. 1555 – c. 1610) was an English pamphleteer. Life Stubbs was born about 1555. He was from Cheshire, possibly the area near Congleton. According to Anthony Wood, he was educated at Cambridge and subsequently at Oxford, ...

*14 October 1738 – 1741 (res.): Fifield Allen (afterwards Archdeacon of Middlesex) *14 June 1741 – 29 August 1754 (d.): John Cole *13 September 1754 – 12 August 1781 (d.): James Ibbetson *5 September 1781 – 1788 (res.):

Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ...

(afterwards

Bishop of St David's The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids. The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, ...

) *8 January 1789 – 1813 (res.): Joseph Pott (afterwards Archdeacon of London) *4 January 1814–bef. 1816 (res.): Robert Hodgson *23 January 1816 – 9 June 1839 (d.): John Watson *17 June 1839 – 1840 (res.): William Hale (afterwards Archdeacon of Middlesex) *16 October 1840 – 28 August 1845 (res.): Charles Burney (afterwards

Archdeacon of Colchester The Archdeacon of Colchester is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Chelmsford – she or he has responsibilities within her archdeaconry (the Archdeaconry of Colchester) including oversight of church buildings and some supervision, d ...

) :''The archdeaconry, by this point covering all Hertfordshire, was transferred to Rochester diocese by Order in Council on 8 August 1845'' *13 January 1846 – 25 November 1883 (d.): Anthony Grant (also

Archdeacon of Rochester The Archdeacon of Rochester is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of Rochester (a division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury.) Like other archdeacons, they are administrators in the diocese at large (having oversight of parishes in ...

, 1863–1882)

Late modern

*1884–1909 (res.):

Walter Lawrance Walter John Lawrance (1840 – 1914) was a priest in the Church of England at the end of the 19th century and the very first part of the 20th. Lawrance was born in 1840 and educated at St Paul’s and Trinity College, Cambridge, before he became ...

(also the first Dean of St Albans from 1900) *1909–1933 (ret.): Kenneth Gibbs (afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *1933–31 December 1935 (d.): Arthur Parnell *1936–1942 (res.): Aylmer Skelton (also suffragan Bishop of Bedford from 1939; afterwards

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

) *1942–1951 (res.): Thomas Wood (also suffragan Bishop of Bedford from 1948) *1951–1962 (ret.): Charles Cockbill (afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *1962–1973 (ret.):

Basil Snell The Ven. Basil Clark Snell (2 February 1907 – 12 June 1986) was an eminent Anglican priest in the mid twentieth century. Snell was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and Queens' College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1933 and began his ...

(afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *1973–1974 (res.): Peter Mumford (afterwards suffragan Bishop of Hertford) *1974–1981 (res.): David Farmbrough (afterwards suffragan Bishop of Bedford) *1982–1987 (ret.): Edward Norfolk (afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *1987–1998 (ret.):

Philip Davies Philip Andrew Davies (born 5 January 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire since the 2005 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is the most rebellious se ...

(afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *1999–2002 (res.):

Richard Cheetham Richard Ian Cheetham (born 18 August 1955) is a retired Church of England bishop and former teacher. He served as the area Bishop of Kingston in the Diocese of Southwark, 2002–2022. Early life He was educated at Kingston Grammar School. ...

(afterwards area Bishop of Kingston) *2003–2007 (ret.): Helen Cunliffe (afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *2008–2020 (ret.): Jonathan Smith (afterwards archdeacon emeritus) *14 March 2020present:

Jane Mainwaring Jane Frances Mainwaring (born 1970) is a British Anglican bishop, who has served as Bishop of Hertford, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of St Albans, since February 2023. She had previously been Archdeacon of St Albans from March 2 ...

References

Sources

*Madden, Bandinel et al. (1st ed.) & Nichols (2nd ed.). Collectanea Topographica & Genealogica, Vol. VI
p. 302
*Hardy & Le Neve: Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: or a calendar of the principal''...'', Volume 2. pp
344

345
* *

External links

Records of the Archdeaconry of St Alban's
(National Archives) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Albans, Archdeacon of Archdeacons of Saint Albans Diocese of St Albans