Who were the nuns? is a database of those women who entered the English convents in exile from the foundation of the first new house in Brussels in 1598 until 1800, containing information about 3,900 nuns who entered 23 convents and the Mary Ward Institute during this period.
Who were the nuns? is a database of those women who entered the English convents in exile from the foundation of the first new house in Brussels in 1598 until 1800. By the end of the 18th century most of the nuns had returned to England, fleeing the violence and anti-religious legislation associated with the French Revolution. The database contains information about 3,900 nuns who entered 23 convents and the Mary Ward Institute during this period. It is searchable by individual (where the woman's full name is known), surname and convent.
The database has been compiled from a wide range of primary sources, in England, Belgium, France and Maryland, USA, and is the fullest possible record of members of the English convents. However, inevitably some material was lost during the upheavals of the French Revolution, and in some instances the closure or amalgamation of modern convents has restricted access to archival material. Full details of all the sources used are available at https://wwtn.history.qmul.ac.uk/about/technical-matters/.
The project uses a MySQL database, and information about the structure and schema are available at http://wwtn.history.qmul.ac.uk/database/index.html.
The project was undertaken at Queen Mary, University of London, and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
1600-1800
Queen Mary, University of London