Rosamond Emily Stephen (1868 – 4 February 1951), was an English-born, lay missionary in the Church of Ireland in Belfast and advocate of

ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

Biography

Stephen was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London,''1881 England Census'' in 1868, the daughter of Sir

James Fitzjames Stephen Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, Stephen achieved prominence as a philosopher, law re ...

(1829–1894) and Mary Richenda Cunningham (1829–1912), daughter of Rev.

John William Cunningham John William Cunningham (1780–1861) was an evangelical clergyman of the Church of England. He was known also as a writer and an editor. Life Cunningham was born in London on 3 January 1780. He was educated at private schools, his last tutor bei ...

. Her sister was the principal of Newman College Cambridge Katharine Stephen (1856-1924). Her initial visits to Ireland were holidays in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

and

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...

. In 1903, Stephen along with Rev. Raymond Orpen, founded the ''Guild of Witness'' (later called the ''Irish Guild of Witness''), to promote the Irish dimension of the Church of Ireland and in 1918 created the Irish Guild of Witness Library In 1921 Stephen moved to Dublin, living in ''Ardfeenish'', 21 Mount Street, bringing with her books from the Irish Guild of Witness, it became the ''Ardfeenish Library''. In 1931, she donated some 5,000 books on the Bible and theology, from the Irish Guild of Witness, to the church, and in 1932, the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library was established in St. Stpehen's Green, Dublin. She later added some 10000 volumes from her father Sir

and her grandfather Sir James Stephen a former professor of modern history at Cambridge. In 1969, the Library was moved to the site of the Divinity Hostel (now the Church of Ireland Theological Institute) in Churchtown. Over the years the RCB Library became the central repository for local (parish) and national Church of Ireland documents. She was a cousin of the writer Virginia Woolfe through her father's brother Sir Leslie Stephen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen, Rosamond 1868 births 1951 deaths Daughters of baronets British women librarians British librarians