Abbot of Peterborough

A list of the abbots of the abbey of Peterborough, known until the late 10th century as "Medeshamstede".

Abbots

Name	Dates	Works	Notes
Sexwulf	c. 654– c. 676		Founder. Bishop of Mercia 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, 995-1002.
Cenwulf	992-1006	Built wall around the abbey.	Bishop of Winchester, 1006.
Ælfsige	1006–1042		Accompanied Æthelred the Unready and Emma 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	1069–1098		Viewed the abbey as a source of personal wealth for himself and his associates with his enfeoffments accounting for 46% of the abbey's property.
Godric	4 days in 1099
Matthias	1103–1104
Ernulf	1107–1114	Began a building campaign.	Bishop of Rochester, 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 and prior of St Neots.
William of Waterville	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	1222–1226
Martin of Ramsey	1226–1233
Walter of Bury St. Edmunds	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	1295–1299
Godfrey of Crowland	1299–1321	A chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury was built between the church and the Lady Chapel.
Adam of Boothby	1321–1338
Henry of Morcott	1338–1353
Robert of Ramsey	1353–1361
Henry of Overton	1361–1391
Nicholas of Elmstow	1391–1396
William Genge	1397–1408
John Deeping	1409–1439
Richard Ashton	1439–1471
William Ramsey	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	1528–1539		Rewarded for complicity during the Dissolution with being made first bishop of Peterborough - 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.
• Stenton, F.M., "Medeshamstede and its Colonies", in Stenton, D.M. (ed.), Preparatory to 'Anglo-Saxon England'being the collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, OUP, 1970.

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