List of abbots of Peterborough
Encyclopedia
A list of the abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

s of the abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of Peterborough
Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the...

, known until the late 10th century as "Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its founder and first abbot, Sexwulf, though he was himself...

".

Abbots

Name Dates Works Notes
Sexwulf
Sexwulf
Seaxwulf was the founding abbot of the Mercian monastery of Medeshamstede, and an early medieval bishop of Mercia. Very little is known of him beyond these details, drawn from sources such as Bede's Ecclesiastical History...

c. 654–
c. 676
Founder. Bishop of Mercia
Bishop of Lichfield
The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 4,516 km² of the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed...

 c. 676–?x692.
Cuthbald c. 676
Egbald before 716
Pusa
Botwine ?x765–
779x?
Beonna ?x789–
805x?
Ceolred
Hedda 870
Ealdwulf 972-992 Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...

, 995-1002.
Cenwulf
Cenwulf of Winchester
Cenwulf was a medieval Bishop of Winchester. Formerly abbot of Peterborough. He was consecrated and died in 1006.-References:*Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961...

992-1006 Built wall around the abbey. Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...

, 1006.
Ælfsige 1006–1042 Accompanied Æthelred the Unready and Emma
Emma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...

 to Normandy in 1013.
Earnwig 1042–1052 A "very good man and very sincere", he "resigned although still in good health".
Leofric 1057–1066 Endowed the monastery "so that it became known as 'Golden Borough'".
Brand 1066–1069
Thorold/Torold de Fécamp
Fécamp
Fécamp is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Albaster Coast...

1069–1098 Viewed the abbey as a source of personal wealth for himself and his associates with his enfeoffment
Enfeoffment
Under the European feudal system, enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for the use of another...

s accounting for 46% of the abbey's property.
Godric 4 days in 1099
Matthias 1103–1104
Ernulf
Ernulf
Ernulf was a French Benedictine architect, and Bishop of Rochester, Kent, England.-Life:Ernulf studied under Lanfranc at the monastery of Bec, entered the Benedictine Order, and lived long as a brother in the monastery of St-Lucien, Beauvais...

1107–1114 Began a building campaign. Bishop of Rochester
Bishop of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the west of the county of Kent and is centred in the city of Rochester where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin...

, 1115. He was influential in restoring the abbey's finances.
John de Séez 1114–1125 Continued the building work and, though in 1116 a great fire caused considerable damage, rebuilding began in 1117.
Abbey held by King Henry I 1125–1127
Henry de Angeli 1128–1133 Did nothing towards the rebuilding. He wasted the goods of the abbey and was banished.
Martin de Bec 1133–1155 Continued construction works. Formerly a monk of Bec
Bec Abbey
Bec Abbey in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, once the most influential abbey in the Anglo-Norman kingdom of the twelfth century, is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure département, in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay.Like all abbeys, Bec maintained annals...

 and prior of St Neots
St Neots
St Neots is a town and civil parish with a population of 26,356 people. It lies on the River Great Ouse in Huntingdonshire District, approximately north of central London, and is the largest town in Cambridgeshire . The town is named after the Cornish monk St...

.
William of Waterville
Waterville
Waterville is the name of several places.In Russia* Waterville, St.-Petersburg, a water park attached to the Park Inn Pribaltiyskaya HotelIn the United States:* Waterville, Iowa* Waterville, Kansas* Waterville, Maine* Waterville, Minnesota...

1155–1175 Deposed
Benedict 1177–1194 Chronicler.
Andrew 1194–1199 West front.
Acharius 1200–1210 West front.
Robert of Lindsey 1214–1222
Alexander of Holderness
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than other parts of Yorkshire...

1222–1226
Martin of Ramsey
Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, England, southeast of Peterborough and north of Huntingdon, UK.-History:...

1226–1233
Walter of Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...

1233–1245 Abbot at the time of the building's final completion through the solemn dedication of the church on 6, October 1238.
William of Hotoft 1246–1249
John de Caux 1250–1262
Robert of Sutton 1262–1273
Richard of London 1274–1295
William of Woodford
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford is a large village and civil parish in East Northamptonshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 1,290 people....

1295–1299
Godfrey of Crowland
Crowland
Crowland or Croyland is a small town in south Lincolnshire, England, positioned between Peterborough and Spalding, with two sites of historical interest.-Geography:...

1299–1321 A chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

 was built between the church and the Lady Chapel.
Adam of Boothby
Boothby Graffoe
Boothby Graffoe is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies approximately 7 miles south of Lincoln, on A607 . It's population is approximately 400....

1321–1338
Henry of Morcott
Morcott
Morcott is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located about seven miles south-east of Oakham on the A47 and A6121 roads.The village railway station on the branch line between Seaton and Luffenham closed in 1966...

1338–1353
Robert of Ramsey 1353–1361
Henry of Overton
Overton
-People:* Constantine Overton* David M. Overton* Doug Overton* Edward Overton, Jr. , United States representative from Pennsylvania* Elli Overton* Frank Overton* Guy Overton* Hall Overton* Iain Overton...

1361–1391
Nicholas of Elmstow 1391–1396
William Genge 1397–1408
John Deeping 1409–1439
Richard Ashton
Richard Ashton
Richard Lawrence Ashton is an English cricketer. Ashton is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm medium pace. He was born at Northampton, Northamptonshire....

1439–1471
William Ramsey
William Ramsey
William Ramsey may refer to:*William Marion Ramsey , American politician and judge in Oregon*William of Ramsey, 13th century English Benedictine monk of Croyland Abbey*William Ramsey , 14th century English architect...

1471–1496
Robert Kirton 1496–1528 The latest part of the church, and the only ever enlargement of the eastern arm, the square ended building at the east known as "the new building".
John Chambers
John Chambers (bishop)
John Chambers was an English Benedictine, the last Abbot of Peterborough and first Bishop of Peterborough.-Life:He was born at Peterborough, and was sometimes called Burgh or Borowe. He became a monk in the abbey there, and was elected its abbot in 1528. He was studied both at Oxford and...

1528–1539 Rewarded for complicity during the Dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 with being made first bishop of Peterborough
Bishop of Peterborough
The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...

 - care for the former abbey church, which became the bishop's cathedral, passed to the dean of Peterborough.

Sources

  • 'Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Peterborough', A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 2 (1906), pp. 83–95. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=40221. Date accessed: 29 May 2007.
  • Peterborough Chronicle
    Peterborough Chronicle
    The Peterborough Chronicle , one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest. According to philologist J.A.W...

    .
  • Stenton, F.M.
    Frank Stenton
    Sir Frank Merry Stenton was a 20th century historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society . He was the author of Anglo-Saxon England, a volume of the Oxford History of England, first published in 1943 and widely considered a classic history of the period...

    , "Medeshamstede and its Colonies", in Stenton, D.M.
    Doris Mary Stenton
    -Life:Born Doris Mary Parsons, she was the daughter of John Parsons and his wife Amelia Wadhams. She was their only child and was born in Reading, Berkshire on 27 August 1894. Her father was a cabinet-maker. She attended the Abbey School in Reading before entering the University College at Reading...

     (ed.), Preparatory to 'Anglo-Saxon England'being the collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, OUP
    Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

    , 1970.
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