Guide to the Records of Stanbrook Abbey (as filmed by the AJCP)
M2064
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Stanbrook Abbey
- Title
- Records of Stanbrook Abbey (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1847 - 1890
- Collection Number
- M2064
- Extent
- 26 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
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.
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)
Archival History
Filmed at Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1964 (AJCP Reel: M2064). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester, England. For more information see Stanbrook Abbey (https://www.stanbrookabbey.org.uk/page-archives.html).
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn774421] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Australia; Australia: immigration to; Benedictines, religious order; Davis, C.H., Bishop; Great Britain; Gregory, Henry, Abbot; Gregson, Dame Scholastica; Le Clerc, Dame Magdalen; Merewether, Kate; Polding, J.B., Bishop; Roman Catholic Church: Australia; St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney; Stanbrook Abbey, England; Subiaco convent, Parramatta, New South Wales; Sydney, New South Wales ; Ullathorne, W.B., Bishop
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 433, p169.
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.
Item Descriptions
Series 1. Letters of Archbishop J.B. Polding, 1847
3 items
Printed circular,signed by Archbishop J.B. Polding (File (i))
Requesting donations for an Australian seminary and books and vestments for the Australian mission, to which is added an undated letter from Polding to the Abbess of Stanbrook, Dame Scholastica Gregson, acknowledging gifts.
Series 3. Letters of Dame Magdalen le Clerc (transcribed), 1848 - 1874
1 item
Dame Magdalen (Parramatta) to Dame Scholastica Gregson and other members of Stanbrook Abbey (32 letters), 1848 - 1874 (File)
The letters, a few of which are incomplete, refer to the establishment of the convent (Subiaco) at Parramatta; the house and gardens; the convent school; novices; Archbishop J.B. Polding; Bishop C.H. Davis; Dr H.G. Gregory; Dame Walburge Wallis; the Benedictine monastery at Sydney; English news; services and festivals; mutual friends; requests for books; daily routine; Elizabeth Sconce; the death of Bishop Davis (1854); efforts to recruit novices; arrival of three sisters from Princethorpe Priory (1856); receipt of gifts; return of Dr H.G. Gregor to England; attacks on Archbishop Polding in Freeman's Journal; education of Catholic children in N.S.W.; news from Princethorpe Prior the constitution of the convent; embroidery; the destruction of St. Mary's Cathedral (1865); Golden Jubilee celebrations (1869); music; reconstruction of Cathedral.
Series 4. Letters of Dame Magdalen le Clerc, (untranscribed), Undated
Dame Magdalen (Parramatta) to Dame Scholastica Gregson and other membe of Stanbrook Abbey (9 letters), undated (File)
The letters, some of which are incomplete, refer to English news; Archbishop J.B. Polding; Dr H.G. Gregory; lay brothers at Subiaco; the convent farm; novices; the deaths of Dame Scholastica Gregory (1850) and Bishop C.H. Davis (1854); receipt of gifts; Dame Walburge Wallis; death of Mary Egan in wreck of Dunbar (1857).
Series 6. Letters of Archbishop J.B. Polding, 1855
3 items
Archbishop J.B. Polding (Rome) to Dame Scholastica Gregson, 15 January 1855 (File (i))
Meeting of bishops at Rome; use of Australian gold in Papal medals; efforts to create St. Bede a Doctor of the Church.
Series 9. Papers concerning Abbot H.G. Gregory, 19 September 1861 - 27 April 1862
4 itemsSeries 11. Letters concerning visit of Dame Mary Walburge Wallis to England, 1875 - 14 December 1876
3 items
Dame Mary Walburge Wallis (Parramatta) to Dame Gertrude Dubois, 1875 (File (i))
Visitation by Archbishop R.B. Vaughan.
Series 12. Letters of Archbishop W.B. Ullathorne, (copies), 5 May 1874 - 26 December 1887
4 items
Archbishop W.B. Ullathorne (Birmingham) to Kate Merewether, 5 May 1874 (File (i))
Sends printed letter from Jubilarians to Archbishop J.B. Polding; support of Archbishop R.B. Vaughan for Polding; erection of new sees in Victoria. (copy).
Archbishop W.B. Ullathorne to Kate Merewether, 24 December 1884 (File (ii))
Recovery from illness; meeting with J. Henniker Heaton; Heaton' book Australian dates and men of the time; Sir Richard Bourke; Bishop R. Willson. (copy).
Series 14. Letter of Sister Marie des Anges, 1856 - 21 September 1890
2 items
Sister Marie des Anges (Princethorpe) to Dame Benedicta Anstey, 21 September 1890 (File)
Account of establishment of Subiaco Convent; Dame Magdalen le Clerc and Dame Scholastica Gregory; selection by Archbishop J.B. Polding of Sister Marie des Anges and two other Princethorpe nuns in 1856; return to England in 1861. (French)