Who were the nuns? A prosopographical study of the English convents in exile in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

本项目将全面研究英国修道院的成员和玛丽沃德研究所在英格兰被禁止期间建立的英国成员。这些机构有3650多名成员（主要是英国人），他们都是在流亡欧洲大陆时成立的。初步研究表明，它们是具有国际联系的重要基金会。历史学家对他们的研究很少，他们的文件和活动在很大程度上仍然是未知的。了解会员和支持网络将使我们能够恢复修道院，并将它们置于英国群岛历史的主流。大多数（22个）是封闭的修道院，另外10个，主要是较小的，由玛丽·沃德和她的追随者建立。他们并不是孤立于世界的：他们的联系和网络广泛传播，包括英国王室成员、布鲁塞尔大公以及欧洲各地世俗和教会阶层的成员。修女们建造了大量的修道院和学校，委托创作艺术和音乐作品，并为妇女创建了重要的图书馆和学习中心。他们一直在吸引成员，直到最近，除了两个，其余的都幸存了下来。这项研究将对修道院和公共档案中幸存的文件进行全面调查。这些修道院成员及其支持者网络的个人详细资料将被提取出来，输入一个关系数据库。将抄录一份有代表性的未完成文件，并将其输入一个单独的数据库，以便进行定性分析。这两个数据库将以一种新的方式结合定量和定性分析，使用经过测试的技术。提议的项目团队汇集了经验丰富的个人，他们具有成功和有效地完成项目所需的特定技能。迈克尔·奎斯提尔（Michael Questier）对天主教家庭和那个时期的政治有着无与伦比的了解。Caroline Bowden最近领导了一个使用定性数据分析软件的资助项目。她在修道院档案方面做了大量工作，并建立了网站http://www.rhul.ac.uk/bedford-centre/history-women-religious/index.html。Katharine Keats-Rohan是英国在使用体象学技术方面最有经验的历史学家之一，完成了几个大型项目。Jan Broadway在开发尖端数据库和在网络上发布材料方面拥有广泛的技能。它们都被AHDS评为最佳实践。与该团队一起工作的一名博士生将研究英国修道院与政治文化之间的关系。玛丽女王能够为团队提供必要的信息通信技术支持。历史系在管理大型数据库项目方面有成功的经验，这得益于ESRC对Borromei Bank项目的资助，历史系的成员有着互补的研究兴趣。包括在线和纸质出版在内的出版物范围将使研究结果尽可能广泛地惠及学术界以外的广大受众，包括家庭历史学家。除数据基外，这些产出将包括所附修道院成员的传记登记册、一卷解释性论文、一篇博士论文和一卷年鉴的评论版。该项目既将展示英国修道院在欧洲的重要作用，也将为其他学者和感兴趣的研究人员提供资料、数据和专业知识。

This project will make a comprehensive study of the membership of the English convents and the English members of Mary Ward's Institute established during the period when they were proscribed in England. These institutions with more than 3,650 (mainly English), members were all founded in exile in continental Europe. Preliminary research has shown that they were significant foundations with international connections. They have been little studied by historians and their documents and activities have remained largely unknown. Understanding the membership and supporting networks will allow us to recover the convents and place them in the mainstream of the history of the British archipelago.Most (twenty two) were enclosed convents with a further ten, mainly smaller, houses founded by Mary Ward and her followers. They were not isolated from the world: their contacts and networks spread widely, including members of the royal family of England, the archdukes of Brussels and members of lay and ecclesiastical hierarchies across Europe among their supporters. The nuns built substantial convents and schools, commissioned works of art and music, and created important libraries and centres of learning for women. They continued to attract members and all except two survived until recently. The research will carry out a full survey of surviving documents in conventual and public archives. Personal details of members of the convents and their network of supporters will be extracted for entry into a relational database. A representative selection of outstanding documents will be transcribed and entered in a separate database for qualitative analysis. The two databases will be linked to combine quantitative and qualitative analysis using tested techniques in a new way. The proposed project team brings together experienced individuals with the particular skills needed for the successful and efficient completion of the project. Michael Questier brings to the study his unrivalled knowledge of Catholic families and the politics of the period. Caroline Bowden has recent experience leading a funded project using qualitative data analysis software. She has worked extensively in conventual archives and established the website http://www.rhul.ac.uk/bedford-centre/history-women-religious/index.html. Katharine Keats-Rohan is one of the most experienced historians in the use of prosopographical techniques in Britain with several large-scale projects completed. Jan Broadway has wide-ranging skills developing cutting-edge databases and publishing material on the web. Both of them are commended by AHDS for best practice. A PhD student working with the team will study the relationship between the English convents and political culture. Queen Mary is able to provide the necessary ICT support to the team. The history department has successful experience in managing a large scale database project as a result of the ESRC grant for the Borromei Bank project and has members with complementary research interests. The range of publications including online and paper delivery will make the results as accessible as possible to a wide audience extending beyond the academic world to include family historians. In addition to the databases, the outputs will include a biographical register of members of the enclosed convents, a volume of interpretive essays, a PhD thesis and a critical edition of a volume of annals. The project will both demonstrate the important role of the English convents in Europe and also provide sources, data and know-how for other scholars and interested researchers.