Dean and Canons of Windsor


The Dean and Canons of Windsor are the ecclesiastical body of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Foundation

The college of canons was established in 1348 by Letters Patent of King Edward III. It was formally constituted on the feast of St Andrew the Apostle, 30 November 1352, when the statutes drawn up by William Edington, bishop of Winchester, as papal delegate, were solemnly delivered to William Mugge, the warden of the college.
Accepting that the process of foundation took several years to complete, the college takes the year 1348 as its formal date of foundation.

Costume

Three ancient monumental brasses survive depicting canons of Windsor, wearing the mantle of the Order of the Garter, purple in colour, with a circular badge on the left shoulder, displaying: Argent, a cross gules :
  1. c. 1370. Roger Parkers, North Stoke, Oxfordshire.
  2. 1540. Roger Lupton, LL.D., Provost of Eton College and Canon of Windsor. Eton College Chapel.
  3. 1558. Arthur Cole, S.T.B., President of Magdalen, at Magdalen College, Oxford. Showing a very ornate mantle worn over cassock and surplice.
The long cords which fasten the mantle are well represented at North Stoke and Magdalen College. In the two later examples it is gathered. On the Eton brass the mantle is fastened at the neck. The lost effigy of John Robyns, d. 1558, of which the inscription remains in St George's Chapel, may have shown him wearing the mantle. Brasses of canons of Windsor are found showing them vested in copes, without the Garter badge, as at Thurcaston, Leicestershire., and at Harrow. A brass was discovered in 1890 at Bennington, near Stevenage, Hertfordshire, showing a small mutilated effigy of a priest in a cope with a round badge on the left shoulder. The cope has an orphrey. This has been supposed to represent a Canon of Windsor.

Suspension of canonries

Section 9 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840 provided for the suspension of eight of the canonries at St George's. It required that the first two vacant canonries should be suspended, the next filled, the next two suspended, the next filled, the next two suspended, the next filled, and the next two suspended.

Current chapter

As of 2 January 2020:
;Minor Canons
See List of Deans of Windsor for chronological list.

Canons of the First Stall

Canonry of the First Stall suspended 1861 by Act of 1840.

Canons of the Second Stall

Canonry of the Second Stall then suspended by Act of 1840.

Canons of the Third Stall

Canonry of the Third Stall suspended by Act of 1840.

Canons of the Fourth Stall

Canonry suspended by Act of 1840.

Canons of the Fifth Stall

Canonry suspended in 1860 by Act of 1840.

Canons of the Eighth Stall

Canonry of the Eighth Stall suspended by the Act of 1840.

Canons of the Ninth Stall

Canonry of the Tenth Stall suspended by the Act of 1840.

Canons of the Eleventh Stall

Twelfth Stall suspended under the Act of 1840.