Edmund Stafford (1395-1419) came of a greatly distinguished family. He was a canon of York when Pope Boniface IX. advanced him to the See of Exeter. For a time he served the king as Lord High Chancellor. He has been abused by Campbell in his "Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England": but there seems little doubt that he deserved the reputation he certainly got of being learned, grave, and wise, and "very well accounted generally of all men." To him are attributed the canopies over the tombs in the Lady Chapel.
John Ketterick or Catterick (1419) died at Florence a month after his appointment.
Edmund Lacy (1420-1455), composer of an office in honour of the Archangel Raphael, left a saintly reputation, and pilgrimages were, for long, made to his tomb. According to Canon Freeman he raised the chapter house and glazed the nave windows.
George Neville (1458-1465) was a son of the Earl of Salisbury. He was Chancellor of Oxford, and only twenty-four when made bishop. Though for several years Lord High Chancellor, and translated to York, he died in disgrace and comparative poverty.
John Bothe (1465-1478) was the son of a Cheshire
knight. He has often, but wrongly, been credited with being the donor of the throne. With more certainty the roof of the chapter house has been acknowledged as his work.
Peter Courtenay (1478-1486), son of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, had been Archdeacon of Exeter and Wiltshire, and Dean of Windsor and Exeter before he was appointed Bishop of Exeter. He assisted at the coronation of Richard III., but was none the less translated, for his services, by Henry to the diocese of Winchester.
Richard Fox (1487-1491), the next bishop, was held in great esteem by Henry VII., whom he represented for a time as Ambassador at the Court of Scotland. He arranged the preliminaries of the marriage of Henry's daughter Margaret with James IV. He was translated to Bath and Wells, then to Durham, and finally to Winchester. He is said to have refused the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury, which his godson, Henry VIII., was anxious he should accept.
Oliver King (1492-1495) was Bishop of Exeter for a short time only, being translated to Bath and Wells. He began building the Abbey Church at Bath, but did not live to see much of it completed.
Richard Redman (1496-1501) was translated to Exeter from St. Asaph. He resigned the see on becoming Bishop of Ely.