Dean of the Arches explained

The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.^[1] This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribunals in the province of Canterbury.

The Dean of the Arches is appointed jointly by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York with the approval of the monarch signified by warrant under the sign manual.^[2] The same person presides in the Chancery Court of York where he or she has the title of Auditor and hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribunals in the province of York. The Dean of the Arches is also Official Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, and acts as Master of the Faculties.

The current Dean of the Arches is Morag Ellis, who succeeded Charles George on 8 June 2020.^[3]

List of Deans of the Arches

Years	Dean
1273–	William de Middelton^[4]
1297–	William de Sardinia
1308–	John de Ross (?afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, 1325)
1322–?1323	John de Stratford (afterwards Bishop of Winchester, 1323)
1333	John de Ufford^[5]
c.1346	Simon Islip (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, 1349)^[6]
1350–	John de Carleton
1360–	William de Wittersley
1364–	Thomas Young
1376–	John Barner
1381–	Thomas de Baketon, Appointed by Archbishop Courteney (Baketon/Bakton/Bacton/Bactone and variants) Likely a member of the Mynyot/Minot family that included Thomas Minot, Archbishop of Dublin who died in London 1375 (research ongoing)
1407–	Richard Brinkley
1415–	Henry Ware
1419–	John Stafford afterwards Archdeacon of Salisbury, 1419)
1423–	Thomas Beckington (also Archdeacon of Buckingham, 1424–1443 and afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1443

^[4] |-| 1426–||William Lyndwood (also Archdeacon of Stow, 1434)|-| 1434–1440||John Lyndfeld^[7] |-| 1444–||William Byconnyl^[4] |-| 1452–||Robert Dobbs^[4] |-| c.1460–1472||William Wytham^[8] (also Dean of Wells, 1469–1472)|-| 1474–||John Morton (cardinal), afterwards Bishop of Ely, 1478 and Archbishop of Canterbury, 1486 ^[9] |-| 1504–1515||Humphrey Hawardyn^[4] |-| c.1511 ||Richard Bodewell also known as Blodwell|-| 1520–1522||Thomas Wodynton|-| ?–1532||Peter Ligham^[10] |-| 1532–1543||Richard Gwent (died 1543) (also Archdeacon of Brecon, 1534 and Archdeacon of London, 1534) and Archdeacon of Huntingdon, 1542)^[4] |-| 1543–1545||John Cock (or Cockys)^{[11] [4]} |-| 1545–||William Coke or Cooke (1st lay dean)^{[4] [12]} |-| 1549–||Griffin Leyson|-| 1553–||John Story (afterwards MP for East Grinstead, 1553 and Bramber, 1554)|-| 1556–1557||David Pole (afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, 1557}|-| 1557–1558||Henry Cole|-| 1558–1559||Nicholas Harpisfield|-| 1559–1560||William Mowse|-| 1560–?1567||Robert Weston (afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1567)|-| 1567–1573||Thomas Yale|-| 1572–||John Cooke|-| 1573–1589/90||Bartholomew Clerke|-| 1590–1597||Richard Cosin|-| 1597–1598||Thomas Byng|-| 1598–1617||Daniel Donne|-| 1618–1624||Sir William Bird|-| 1624–1633||Sir Henry Marten^[13] |-| 1633–1643||Sir John Lambe|-| c.1646||William Sammes|-| c.1647–1655||William Clerke|-| c.1658–||John Godolpin|-| c.1660||Walter Walker|-| c.1660||Richard Zouch|-| 1660–1672||Sir Giles Sweit|-| 1672–1684||Sir Robert Wiseman|-| 1684–1686||Sir Richard Lloyd|-| 1686–1688||Sir Thomas Exton|-| 1689–1703||George Oxendon|-| 1703–1710||Sir John Cooke|-| 1710–1751||John Bettesworth^[14] |-| 1751–1758||Sir George Lee|-| 1758–1764||Sir Edward Simpson|-| 1764–1778||Sir George Hay|-| 1778–1788||Peter Calvert|-| 1788–1809||Sir William Wynne|-| 1809–1834||Sir John Nicholl|-| 1834–1852||Herbert Jenner-Fust|-| 1852–1858||Sir John Dodson|-| 1858–1867||Stephen Lushington^[15] |-| 1867–1875||Sir Robert Phillimore|-| 1875–1898||Lord Penzance|-| 1898–1903||Sir Arthur Charles|-| 1903–1934||Sir Lewis Dibdin|-| 1934–1955||Sir Philip Wilbraham-Baker|-| 1955–1971||Sir Henry Willink|-| 1971–1972||Walter Wigglesworth|-| 1972–1976||Sir Harold Kent|-| 1977–1980||Kenneth Elphinstone|-| 1980–2000||Sir John Owen|-| 2001–2009||Sheila Cameron|-| 2009–2020||Charles George|-| 2020–||Morag Ellis^[3] |}

Notes and References

1. Details of that court's responsibilities: Ecclesiastical court#Church of England.
2. Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963, section 3(2)(a)
3. Web site: Pocklington . David . Dean of the Court of Arches appointed. Frank Cranmer and David Pocklington . 10 January 2022.
4. Book: Newcourt, Richard. Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense: Comprising all London and ... 434. Google Books
5. [:s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Offord, John de|Offord,_John_de (DNB 1885-1900)]
6. Web site: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Simon Islip.
7. Susan Cavanaugh, A Study of Books Privately Owned in England 1300–1450 (University of Pennsylvania, 1980), Ph.D. Dissertation, p. 517.
8. Web site: The Archdeacons of Leicester 1092–1992. Terence. Cocks. 2012-01-15.
9. Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, Register of John Carpenter, bishop of Worcester, 2 vols, II, fol.53. This source is open to question, however, as the text simply describes Morton as rector of St Dunstan-in-the-East in the deanery of the arches; it does not actually call him the dean. There are no other known references to Morton as dean.
10. Web site: The 1552 Reform of English Church Discipline. 2012-05-26. 18 June 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130618224239/http://churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/Cman_116_3_Bray.pdf. dead.
11. The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliesr times to the present day, 1541-1895
12. Senior. William. The Judges of the High Court of Admiralty. The Mariner's Mirror. 1927. 13. 4. 336. 10.1080/00253359.1927.10655437.
13. The Dictionary of National Biography in its first edition had Hugh Barker Dean c.1632 ; but this was retracted in the 1904 Errata.
14. http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Bettesworth,_John_(d_1751)_Dean_of_the_Arches YourArchives page
15. [ODNB]