Previous to the Reformation the two counties of Lancaster and Chester were included in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and it was not till the year 1541 that the bishopric of Chester was created by Henry VIII and endowed with some of the spoils of the dissolved monasteries.

The diocese of Chester, as then created, comprised the whole of Lancashire and Cheshire, that portion of Yorkshire known as Richmondshire, with some other parishes in that county, part of Cumberland and Westmoreland adjacent to the north of Lancashire, and some parishes in Flintshire and Denbighshire lying near the borders of Cheshire. The early Lancashire and Cheshire wills were almost certainly proved at Lichfield, but enquirers are informed that no early wills relating to these two counties are now to be found there, and it is suggested that they were taken away when the new diocese of Chester was created.