Bishop of Peterborough
Diocesan bishop in the Church of England
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 (including the Soke of Peterborough) and Rutland. The see is in the City of Peterborough, where the bishop's seat (cathedra) is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew. The bishop's residence is Bishop's Lodging, The Palace, Peterborough. The office has been in existence since the foundation of the diocese on 4 September 1541 under King Henry VIII.
The current Bishop of Peterborough is Debbie Sellin, since the confirmation, on 13 December 2023 at Lambeth Palace Chapel, of her election.
As parts of the City of Peterborough are actually in the Diocese of Ely (those parishes south of the River Nene), the last Bishop of Peterborough was appointed as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ely with pastoral care for these parishes delegated to him by the Bishop of Ely.
List of bishops
Chronological list of the Bishops of Peterborough:
Assistant bishops
Among those called "Assistant Bishop of Peterborough" were:
August 1881 – November 1900: John Mitchinson (Rector of Sibstone then Master of Pembroke College, Oxford)
1912–1917 (d.): Lewis Clayton, Canon residentiary of Peterborough Cathedral and former Bishop suffragan of Leicester
1926 – 1945 (ret.): Norman Lang, Canon residentiary of Peterborough Cathedral; Archdeacon of Northampton (until 1936), of Oakham (thereafter); and former Bishop suffragan of Leicester (resigned his suffragan See due to the erection of the Diocese of Leicester, but continued in essentially the same role)
1950 – 1963: Charles Aylen, Vicar of Flore (1945–58) and non-residentiary Canon of Peterborough (1946–61); former Bishop of St Helena
1952–1957 (res.): Gerald Vernon, Vicar of Finedon and former Bishop of Madagascar
1957–1969 (d.): Weston Stewart, Rector of Cottesmore, Rutland until 1964 and former Bishop in Jerusalem
1978 – 1986 (ret.): William Franklin. former Bishop of Colombia
Honorary assistant bishops — retired bishops taking on occasional duties voluntarily — have included:
1974–1978 (d.): Guy Marshall, Vicar of Blakesley with Adstone, former suffragan Bishop in Venezuela (Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago)
1975–1984 (res.): Alan Rogers, retired Bishop of Fulham and of Edmonton
1981–1985 Paul Burrough, Rector of Empingham, Rutland and retired Bishop of Mashonaland.
The public source identifies “Bishop of Peterborough” as diocesan bishop in the Church of England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bishop, Peterborough and Diocesan.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1649070. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1541, 2023, 1881 and 1900.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bishop of Peterborough” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.