Bishop of Sherborne

The Anglo-Saxon dioceses 950—1035

The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name after the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The title was first used by the Anglo-Saxons between the 8th and 11th centuries. It is now used by the Church of England for a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury.

Diocesan Bishops of Sherborne

The Anglo-Saxon Diocese of Sherborne was established by Saint Aldhelm in about 705 and comprised the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Cornwall. The diocese lost territory on the creation of the bishopric of Cornwall in the early 9th century, and lost further territory on the creation of the bishoprics of Wells and Crediton by Archbishop Plegmund in 909.

In 1058, the Sherborne chapter elected Bishop Herman of Ramsbury as their own bishop. He had previously complained of the poverty of his diocese to the extent that, when his plan to become abbot of Malmesbury was blocked by Earl Godwin in 1055, he had abandoned his duties and left to become a monk at St Bertin in France. Following the Norman conquest, the 1075 Council of London united his two sees as a single diocese and translated them to the then-larger settlement around the royal castle at Salisbury (Old Sarum). With papal approval, this was later removed to New Sarum (modern Salisbury) in the 1220s.

List of Diocesan Bishops of Sherborne
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
c. 705	709	Saint Aldhelm	Also Abbot of Malmesbury.
709	737?	Forthhere	Also recorded as Fordhere. Possibly resigned the see in 737.
736	766 x 774	Herewald
766 x 774	789 x 794	Æthelmod
793	796 x 801	Denefrith
793 x 801	816 x 825	Wigberht	Also recorded as Wigheorht.
816 x 825	867	Eahlstan	Also recorded as Alfstan.
867 or 868	871	Saint Heahmund	Also recorded as Saint Hamund.
871 x 877	879 x 889	Æthelheah
879 x 889	890 x 900	Wulfsige I
890 x 900	909	Asser	Also recorded as John Asser or Asserius Menevensis.
c. 909	c. 909	Æthelweard
c. 909	918, or 909 x 925	Wærstan
918, or 909 x 925	918, or 909 x 925	Æthelbald
918, or 909 x 925	932 x 934	Sigehelm
932 x 934	939 x 943	Alfred
939 x 943	958 x 964	Wulfsige II
958 x 964	978	Ælfwold I
978 or 979	991 x 993	Æthelsige I
993?	1002	Wulfsige III	Died in office on 8 January 1002.
1002	1011 or 1012	Æthelric
1011 or 1012	c. 1014	Æthelsige II
1014 x 1017	1014 x 1017	Brithwine I
1017	1023	Ælfmaer	Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. Died in office, possibly on 5 April 1023.
1023	1045	Brihtwine II	Died in office, possibly on 2 June 1045.
1045	1058	Saint Ælfwold II	Venerated as a saint with his Feast day on 25 March.
1058	1075	Herman	Also Bishop of Ramsbury. Became the first Bishop of Salisbury when the sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury were transferred to Salisbury (Old Sarum) in 1075.
Source(s):[1][2]

Suffragan Bishops of Sherborne

In 1925, the title Bishop of Sherborne was revived by the Church of England as a suffragan bishopric in the Diocese of Salisbury. From 1981 to 2009, the suffragan Bishop of Sherborne was responsible as area bishop for those parishes in Dorset and Devon belonging to the diocese.^[3][4] Since 2009, the suffragan Bishop of Sherborne, along with the suffragan Bishop of Ramsbury, assists the diocesan Bishop of Salisbury in overseeing the whole of the diocese.^[3]

The post became vacant in 2015 on the resignation of Graham Kings, who had been consecrated in a special service at Westminster Abbey on 24 June 2009 by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[5][6]

List of Suffragan Bishops of Sherborne
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1925	1927	Robert Abbott
1928	1936	Gerald Allen	Translated to Dorchester.
1936	1947	Harold Rodgers
1947	1960	Maurice Key	Translated to Truro.
1960	1976	Victor Pike
1976	2001	John Kirkham	First area bishop from 1981; also Bishop to the Forces (1992–2001).
2001	2009	Tim Thornton	Translated to Truro.
2009	15 July 2015	Graham Kings	Last area bishop (until end 2009). Became Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion.[7]
2016	present	Karen Gorham	Consecrated 24 February 2016.[8]
Source(s):[9]

References

1. "Historical successions: Salisbury (including precussor offices)". Crockford's Clerical Directory. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
2. Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd, reprinted 2003 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
3. "Bishops". Diocese of Salisbury. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
4. Salisbury Diocesan Synod minutes – 99th session, 7 November 2009 p. 3 (Accessed 23 April 2014)
5. "Biography of the Bishop of Sherborne". Diocese of Salisbury. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
6. "Consecration of The Bishop of Sherborne". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
7. Twitter — Graham Kings (Accessed 3 July 2015)
8. Diocese of Salisbury — Karen Gorham to be New Bishop of Sherborne (Accessed 26 November 2015)
9. Crockford's Clerical Directory (100th ed.). London: Church House Publishing. 2007. p. 948. ISBN 978-0-7151-1030-0.