The key purpose of “Who Were the Nuns?” project is to identify those women who entered the English convents on continental Europe from the foundation of the first new house in Brussels in 1598 until 1800. The latter date has been taken to mark the end of the exile period when most of them decided to leave the continent and seek sanctuary in England because of the impact of violence associated with the French revolution and anti-religious legislation.
The searchable database has been compiled as far as possible from convent sources in England, Belgium, France and Maryland, USA and related material in external archives. The nuns kept records of professions and deaths of all their members: unfortunately some of these have not survived the upheavals faced at the time of the French revolution and the violent seizures of convent property. Recent closures and amalgamations have also posed problems about the continued accessibility of texts. However contemporary members of the convents have been most generous in granting access to the sources to provide not only a very full record of members but also the names of many women who tried out at the convents but decided to leave. While we do not claim to have a complete record of every member of the English convents, we are confident that it is nearly complete. Like the current members of the Congregation of Jesus, we continue to search records and archives for details of members of the Mary Ward Institute, whose history rendered membership records in the period of exile particularly vulnerable.
Resources Available
- Search: Search engine for nuns in the database
- Database: Dataset of the project in downloadable form
- Publications: Includes maps and Google Earth data as well as PDFs of source texts
- ENGLISH BENEDICTINE NUNS IN FLANDERS, 1598-1687 ANNALS OF THEIR FIVE COMMUNITIES
- REGISTERS OF THE BENEDICTINE NUNS, BRUSSELS
- OBITUARIES AND THE RETURN TO ENGLAND OF THE BENEDICTINE NUNS OF CAMBRAI
- OBITUARY NOTICES OF THE NUNS OF THE ENGLISH BENEDICTINE ABBEY OF GHENT IN FLANDERS. 1627-1811
- NOTES AND OBITUARIES OF THE ENGLISH BENEDICTINE NUNS OF OUR BLESSED LADY OF GOOD HOPE IN PARIS
- REGISTERS OF THE BENEDICTINE NUNS, PONTOISE
- RECORDS OF THE ENGLISH CANONESSES OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AT LIEGE CRSS
- PROFESSIONS AND OBITUARIES OF THE PARIS CONCEPTIONISTS
- DOMINICANA: RECORDS OF THE NUNS OF THE SECOND ORDER
- THE FRANCISCAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
- REGISTERS OF THE POOR CLARES, GRAVELINES
Queen Mary University of London
