Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus Archive

The archive of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus includes: provincial records, including minutes of meetings, reports and other papers of the provincial council, letters from the Vatican, circular letters from the Mothers Superior, personnel records, and wills and legacies; papers relating to the Convent of Our Lady, Southam, including financial papers, building records, papers relating to the chapel and school, registers, and papers relating to the history of the convent; farm records; papers of St. Michael’s Convent, Finchley, its school; other communities; unpublished and published works; papers relating to the embroidery room; and photographs. Although the archive contains some records of the mother-house in Aachen, the papers predominantly relate to the administration of the English Province.

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus was founded primarily with the aim of caring for and educating poor children, tracing its origins back to the founding of a Poor School by Clare Fey, Leocadia Startz, Wilhelmina Istas and Aloysia Vossen in Aachen in 1837. On 2nd February 1844 these young women became the first members of a new religious congregation, the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus. Permission to use this name was granted by the State in 1852. The new Congregation spread throughout Germany but at the time of the Kulturkampf the Sisters were forced to give up nearly all these houses and their work with children in Germany. The Congregation then spread to other countries including Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and England. The first English foundation took place in 1876 when a group of Sisters moved to Southam, Warwickshire in response to an appeal for a religious community to care for orphaned and abandoned children. In addition to the work with children, an embroidery workshop was started and this became well known for the quality of the vestments, the designs of which were furnished by A.W. Pugin among others. In 1908 a second foundation was made in Finchley, north London, where a school was established. Later other communities were started in Oxford and Grimsby. After the Second World War communities were established in Sheffield, Leeds and Boston Spa and in these the main activities were teaching and running Children's Homes. There was also a holiday house for the Sisters in Penmaenmawr, North Wales. From the 1970s and 1980s there were communities in Birmingham, Holloway (North London) and St.Albans (Hertfordshire).

Open for consultation.

Donated by the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, April and December 2015, Acc Nos 2014/15:70 and 2015/16:71.

Online catalogue

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from Ushaw.Library@durham.ac.uk and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.