Guide to the Records of Stanbrook Abbey (as filmed by the AJCP), 1847-1890
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Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- M2064
- Creator:
- Stanbrook Abbey
- Extent:
- 26 items
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference.
Background
- Content Summary:
-
Letters 1847-55 of Bishop J.B. Polding referring to donations for an Australian seminary and books, vestments for the Australian mission, and plans to establish a Benedictine convent in New South Wales.
Letters 1848-74 of Dame Magdalen le Clerc referring to: establishment of convent at Parramatta named 'Subiaco'; the Benedictine monastery in Sydney; services and festivals; recruitment of novices; destruction of St Mary's Cathedral (1869); Bishop J.B. Polding; Dr H.G. Gregory; and Bishop C.H. Davis.
Letters 1861-62 of Dame Scholastica Gregson concerning Abbot H.G. Gregory.
Letters 1874-87 of Bishop W.B. Ullathorne to Kate Merewether.
Account of voyage of Princethorpe nuns to Australia in 1856.
- Biographical / Historical:
-
In 1623 nine Englishwomen led by Helen More, a descendant of Sir Thomas More, established the Benedicitine Monastery of our Lady of Comfort of English Dames at Cambrai, France. The Monastery was forcibly closed in 1793 and the remaining 16 nuns emigrated to England in 1795. They first opened a school at Woolton, near Liverpool. In 1807 they moved to Salford Hall, near Evesham. In 1835 the Stanbrook estate near Worcester was acquired. The fortunes of the Abbey were at a low ebb in the mid-nineteenth century, but the Abbey Church was built in 1871 and recruitment improved towards the end of the century.
In 1847 J.B. Polding, Archbishop of Sydney, recruited Dame Magdalen le Clerc from Stanbrook Abbey and Dame M. Scholastica Gregory (sister of Abbot H.G. Gregory) from Princethorpe Priory near Rugby to establish a Benedictine convent in Sydney. The convent was inaugurated in February 1849 on a 150 acre property at Parramatta which was called 'Subiaco'. The nuns did laundry work for St. Mary's Monastery in Sydney and made clothing. A school was opened in 1851 and gradually the convent became more firmly established. In 1853 Miss Walburge Wallis, a former novice of Stanbrook, who, as Mother Walburge was to become Prioress in 1864, went out to Subiaco, followed in 1856 by three nuns from Princethorpe. Dame Magdalen le Clerc died in 1878. The convent was ultimately transferred to Pennant Hills in Sydney.
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Available for Access.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
- Location of this collection:
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Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: