Dean of Durham

Early modern

• 1541–1551 Hugh Whitehead (last prior)
• 1551–1553 Robert Horne
• 1553–1558 Thomas Watson
• 1558–1559 Thomas Robertson (deprived) ^[1]
• 1559–1561 Robert Horne (again)
• 1561–1563 Ralph Skinner
• 1563–1579 William Whittingham
• 1580–1581 Thomas Wilson (Lay dean)
• 1583–1595 Tobias Matthew
• 1596–1606 William James
• 1606–1620 Adam Newton (Lay dean)
• 1620–1638 Richard Hunt
• 1639–1645 Walter Balcanquhall
• 1646 Christopher Potter
• 1646–1659 William Fuller
• 1660–1661 John Barwick
• 1661–1684 John Sudbury
• 1684–1690 Denis Granville
• 1691–1699 Thomas Comber
• 1700–1728 John Montague

• 1728–1746 Henry Bland
• 1746–1774 The Hon Spencer Cowper
• 1774–1777 Thomas Dampier
• 1777–1788 William Digby
• 1788–1794 John Hinchliffe

Late modern

• 1794–1824 The Hon James Cornwallis

(The Earl Cornwallis from 1823)

• 1824–1827 Charles Hall
• 1827–1840 John Jenkinson
• 1840–1869 George Waddington
• 1869–1894 William Lake (also Warden of the University)
• 1894–1912 George Kitchin
• 1912–1918 Hensley Henson
• 1918–1933 James Welldon
• 1933–1951 Cyril Alington
• 1951–1974 John Wild
• 1974–1979 Eric Heaton
• 1980–1988 Peter Baelz^[2]
• 1989–2002 John Arnold
• 2003–present Michael Sadgrove