William Peirse (1630-1632) was promoted from the Deanery. He only remained here as bishop two years, when he was translated to Bath and Wells. "A man of excellent parts, both in divinity and knowledge of the laws: very vigilant and active he was for the good both of the ecclesiastical and civil state." He was silenced during the civil war, but restored in 1660. On his tombstone, at Walthamstow, it is said "Templum Cathedrale Wellense reparavit, Episcopale Palatium exædificavit, coelis maturus terris valedixit an. æt. 94 salut. 1670."
Augustine Lindsell (1632-1634) was Dean of Lichfield. He was translated to Hereford after being bishop here two years, but died within a few months.
Francis Dee (1634-1638) was Dean of Chichester. "He was a man of very pious life and affable behaviour." He founded scholarships and fellowships at S. John's College, Cambridge, of which he had been Fellow, for boys from the King's School, Peterborough, of his name or kindred. In 1637 Archbishop Laud reported to the King that "My Lord of Peterborough hath taken a great deal of pains and brought his diocese into very good order." He left by will £100 to the repairs of the Cathedral, and the same amount to the repairs of S. Paul's. He was buried in the choir, near the throne.
John Towers (1638-1649) was one of the King's chaplains.
No successor was appointed until the Restoration. Benjamin Laney (1660-1663) was then made Bishop. He was Dean of Rochester, and had been Master of Pembroke, Cambridge. He was translated to Lincoln in 1663, and to Ely in 1667. He died in 1675, and is buried at Lambeth.
Joseph Henshaw (1663-1679) was Dean of Chichester. He died suddenly on March 9, 1679, on his return from attending service at Westminster Abbey. He was buried at East Lavant in Sussex, where he had been rector.
William Lloyd (1679-1685) was translated from Llandaff, and was further translated to Norwich in 1685. He was deprived of his see as a Nonjuror in 1691. He lived at Hammersmith till his death in 1710. He was the last survivor of the seven deprived bishops. It is singular that his namesake, William Lloyd, bishop of S. Asaph, should have been one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower by King James II. in 1688; but he had no scruples about taking the oaths to the new sovereigns, and became afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and ultimately of Worcester.
Thomas White (1685-1691) was one of the seven committed to the Tower, and also one of the seven deprived in 1691 as Nonjurors. He attended Sir John Fenwick on the scaffold. This bishop, with his predecessor, Bishop Lloyd, the deprived Bishop of Norwich, were two of the consecrators of the Nonjuring Bishops, Hickes and Wagstaffe. There were really ten bishops (including Archbishop Sancroft) who refused the oaths to William and Mary; but the Bishops of Worcester, Chichester, and Chester died before the time fixed for the deprivation. Bishop White lived in retirement after he left his diocese. He died in 1698, and his funeral is mentioned in Evelyn's Diary, under date June 5th: "Dr White, late Bishop of Peterborough, who had been deprived for not complying with Government, was buried in St Gregory's churchyard or vault, at St Paul's. His hearse was accompanied by two Nonjuror bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and Dr. Lloyd, with forty Nonjuror clergymen, who could not stay the office of the burial, because the Dean of St Paul's had appointed a conforming minister to read the office, at which all much wondered, there being nothing in that office which mentioned the present king." Lathbury remarks on this retirement from the grave, that it was a singular circumstance, and contrary to the practice of the Nonjurors in many other cases.
Richard Cumberland (1691-1718) had a reputation as a philosophical writer. The only memoir of him is to be found in the preface to Sanchoniathon's History,[[37]] a posthumous work, in which his chaplain (and son-in-law) thus describes his appointment:—"The king was told that Dr Cumberland was the fittest man he could nominate to the bishopric of Peterborough. Thus a private country clergyman, without posting to Court—a place he had rarely seen—without suing to great men, without taking the least step towards soliciting for it, was pitched upon to fill a great trust, only because he was fittest for it. He walked after his usual manner on a post-day to the coffee-house, and read in the newspaper that one Dr Cumberland of Stamford was named to the bishopric of Peterborough, a greater surprise to himself than to anybody else." His chaplain speaks of the bishop's character, zeal, and learning in terms of unqualified praise. One of the bishop's sons, Richard, was Archdeacon of Northampton, and father of Denison Cumberland, Bishop of Clonfert and of Kilmore. This last named married a daughter of Dr Bentley, the famous Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and one of their sons was Richard Cumberland, the dramatist. Bishop Richard Cumberland is buried in the Cathedral, and a tablet to his memory remains in the New Building.