Margaret Radcliffe with the name in religion of Margaret Paul (1582–1654) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

nun who briefly served as abbess of the English Convent of Poor Clares, Gravelines, and was also the founding superior of English convents in Brussels and Aire.

Life

Radcliffe was born in the 1580s. Her parents were Isabel (born Grey) and Sir Francis Radcliffe (1563–1622) of Dilston near Corbridge in Northumberland, and

Derwentwater Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in north west England. It lies wholly within the Borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria. The lake occupies part of Borrowdal ...

in Cumberland. She was their second daughter but the first of their four daughters to commit to religious life. Her father was a noted

recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

and he had been taken for questioning after the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sough ...

in 1605. Building at the family seat including a chapel was said to have been funded by money left over after the gunpowder plot failed. The Radcliffes were Catholics and at the time it was illegal to be a practising Catholic so Margaret went to the

Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the H ...

. At

Gravelines Gravelines (, ; ; ) is a commune in the Nord department in Northern France. It lies at the mouth of the river Aa southwest of Dunkirk. It was formed in the 12th century around the mouth of a canal built to connect Saint-Omer with the sea. As ...

she was clothed in the habit of the Poor Clares on 2 July 1611, and became a full member of the community by taking her vows on 3 July 1612.

Mary Ward Mary Ward may refer to: Scientists and academics * Mary Ward (nurse) (1884–1972) English nurse to the boat people on the waterways * Mary Ward (scientist) (née King, 1827–1869) Irish amateur scientist, was killed by an experimental steam car ...

had founded the community in 1607 but subsequently left.

Elizabeth Tyldesley Elizabeth Tyldesley (or Clare Mary Ann, OSC) (1585–1654) was a 17th-century abbess at the Poor Clare Convent at Gravelines. Life Elizabeth Tyldesley born in 1585, was the daughter of Thomas Tyldesley of Morleys Hall, Astley and Myerscough Hall ...

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

Clare Mary Ann, was elected as

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...

in 1615. In 1617, Radcliffe's sister Elizabeth joined her and two years later another two of their sisters, Dorothy and Ann, were living in the convent. When she made her vows her age was given as 27, so she would have been 37 when she and her sister, Elizabeth, were sent to Brussels in 1622 to found a new Franciscan convent there. She was to be abbess and her sister was to be her assistant. They were there for four years and Radcliffe created a regime for the nuns although she later feared that it was too tough as it was based on her own training as a Poor Clare. However it went well and in time they could leave with a new abbess appointed. In September 1626 a Franciscan

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

deposed Tyldesley as abbess at Gravelines and appointed Radcliffe to replace her. This was a very unpopular move and a fire broke out at the convent which was supposed by some to be divine retribution. Tyldesley was restored to her former position in 1627 after Radcliffe, and ten others, were moved to the Poor Clare convent in Dunkirk. In 1629 a new convent was established at

Aire Aire may refer to: Music * ''Aire'' (Yuri album), 1987 * ''Aire'' (Pablo Ruiz album), 1997 *''Aire (Versión Día)'', an album by Jesse & Joy Places *Aire-sur-la-Lys, a town in the Pas-de-Calais département in France *Aire-la-Ville, a municip ...

in Artois with Radcliffe as abbess. The 24 founding members included those who had followed her to Dunkirk two years before. Radcliffe died at Aire in 1654.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radcliffe, Margaret 1582 births 1654 deaths English Roman Catholic abbesses