Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 5, Chichester. Originally published by Institute of Historical Research, London, 1996.
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'Archdeacons: Introduction', in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 5, Chichester, (London, 1996) pp. 19-20. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1066-1300/vol5/pp19-20 [accessed 23 April 2024]
ARCHDEACONS
The archdeacons of the Chichester diocese occur without precise territorial titles until the beginning of the thirteenth century. As none of the four earliest archdeacons, listed below (list 7) in chronological order, ever appears in company with another, it is not clear that before the middle of the twelfth century there was more than one archdeacon officiating at one time. From shortly after 1150, however, two archdeacons frequently appear together. As Henry Mayr-Harting saw, in order to identify the two lines of succession, later called Chichester (list 8) and Lewes (list 9), it is necessary to work back from the first territorial assignation of either archdeacon - that of the archdeacon of Lewes, M. Eustace de Leveland. (fn. 1) When the lines of succession are constructed in this way, it becomes clear that when both archdeacons appeared together in witness clauses to charters, the archdeacon of Chichester always had precedence of the archdeacon of Lewes.