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. 60)
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.