No. III
THE REGISTER BOOK OF PROFESSIONS, ETC. , OF THE ENGLISH BENEDICTINE NUNS AT BRUSSELS AND WINCHESTER , NOW AT EAST BERGHOLT . 1598-1856 CONTRIBUTED
BY THE LADY ABBESS AND COMMUNITY ST MARY'S ABBEY , EAST BERGHOLT
OF
EDITED BY JOSEPH S. HANSOM
The Register Book is of substantial paper, 11 ×8 inches , and is well bound in brown leather. The first twenty pages of Registers are margined all round in red ink . The writing is very clear , with few corrections or erasures , the ink being still fresh. This part includes all the first registers down to the year 1682, and is evidently a fair copy from some earlier writing . Then follow six pages in a large sloping hand continued until 1717, the ink being quite brown. Four pages follow in neat copper- plate bringing the register down to 1768. The remaining seven pages complete the Winchester Register and are penned by the same hand. The last entry at Winchester is 4th November 1856. In the original, but not repro-
duced here , are fifteen more pages of modern Registers since the Community moved to East Bergholt. Preceding the Registers are thirty-seven pages of financial affairs of the Community . The spellings are seldom beyond easy recognition. The names in religion of the nuns are usually given, and it is thought that no changes were made from the baptismal names in several of the earlier ones. Where there is evidence to the contrary, the baptismal names are supplied in foot notes . This is important to fix the positions in families . The paternal names are often well known as those of prominent Catholic families . There are however cases of mixed marriages, temporisers, &c. Some foot notes help to clear the ground in cases . The years of profession , in the margins, have been removed to the head line of each register. REGISTER
The Booke of the ages , together with the years and dayes of the entrance, Cloathing and Profession of the Religious women of the English Monasterie of the Assumption of our Blessed Ladie of the holie Order of Sainct Benedict begun in Bruxells the 11th of July in the year of our Lord 1598 . Date of Profession
Lady Joanna Berkely The 14th of September in the year of our Lord 1580. Our Rt Revd Ladie & Abbesse, the Lady Jone Barkley, Daughter in the Countie of Glocester, of Sir John Barkley of Beverston 174 1580