The Dean of Wolverhampton was the head of the chapter of canons at St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, until the chapter was disestablished in 1846. The collegiate church was, until that point, a royal peculiar falling outside of the diocesan and provincial structures of the Church of England. Today, the church is district church within a team parish led by a rector, although it has its own vicar and curate within the team. It is now part of the Diocese of Lichfield.

List of deans

The deanery was probably established in the mid-12th century, along the lines adopted at Lichfield Cathedral, as the church was in episcopal hands at that time. The names of earlier heads of the chapter and any deans before Peter of Blois have not survived. Samson, William the Conqueror's chaplain was feudal overlord of the canons, but there is no evidence he headed the chapter and he was not ordained priest until he became bishop of Worcester. The following were deans of Wolverhampton before the post became assimilated to the deanery of Windsor, around 1480.

Dean of Wolverhampton

High medieval

bef. 1190 Peter of Blois

1203 Nicholas

1203 Deanery suspended

1205 Henry Fitz Geoffrey

By 1224 Giles of Erdington

1269 Theodosius de Camilla

1295 Philip of Everdon

Late medieval

1303 John of Everdon

1318 Walter de Islip

1322 Godfrey of Rudham

1326 Robert of Silkstone

1328 John of Melbourne

1328 John of the Chamber

1328 Hugh Ellis

1339 Philip Weston

1368 John of Newnham

1369 Amaury Shirland

1373 Richard Postell

1394 Lawrence Allerthorpe

1406 Thomas Stanley

1410 Robert Wolveden

1426 William Felter

1437 John Barningham

1457 William Dudley

1477 Lionel Woodville

Modern era

1479 onwards Deanery united to that of Windsor

1646–1660 Deanery suspended

1846 Deanery abolished (on the death of Henry Hobart)

Dean of Wolverhampton

References

Dean of Wolverhampton