Poor Clares, Darlington

The Poor Clares, also variously known as the Order of Saint Clare, the Poor Ladies, Sisters of Saint Clare, the Second Order of Saint Francis and the Minoresses, was founded by Saint Clare of Assisi in 1212. After the Reformation there were no opportunities for Catholic women to lead a religious life in England and a number of convents were set up in France. The first English Poor Clares community in France was founded at Gravelines in 1609 with subsidiary houses at Dunkirk in 1625, Aire-sur-la-Lys in 1629 and Rouen in 1644. All four houses remained in existence until 1795 when, after a period of imprisonment in their convents, the nuns were expelled by the revolutionary government. The nuns of the convent at Aire-sur-la-Lys were able to bring 79 crates of possessions with them, including part of the library. It is not clear how the other communities were able to recover books from the Continent. The nuns settled first at Haggerston Castle in Northumberland. They moved to Scorton Hall in Yorkshire in 1807 and then to St. Clare's Abbey in Darlington in 1857. In 2007, due to declining numbers, they decided to amalgamate with the Poor Clares convent at Much Birch near Hereford and gave their older books to Durham University Library.