Society of Jesus, English Province

IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1093 Society of Jesus, English Province
Held at: Society of Jesus, British Province
Domain: archival
Title: Society of Jesus, English Province
Date(s) of contents: c 1772-1934
Level of description: Fonds
Extent and medium: Substantial (unquantified) archival material including photographs and audiotapes; official publications.

CONTEXT

Name of creator(s):
Society of Jesus, British Province
Society of Jesus, English Province

Administrative/Biographical history: The Society of Jesus was founded by St Ignatius Loyola in Paris in 1534 and received papal approval in 1540. The aims of the order were twofold; to work for post-Reformation clerical reform, and to undertake missionary work amongst the heathen. The English Province of the Society became an independent Province in 1623 (Wales came under its jurisdiction from this time, as did Scotland from 1815).

The tradition of British Jesuit missionary activity dates from the 1630s, when English Jesuits were deployed in Maryland. The tradition was broadened, following British Catholic emancipation in 1829; for instance, in 1834 English Jesuits took over the Catholic mission at Calcutta (this association ended in the late 1840s), and other missions were established in the Indian subcontinent during the 19th century, including sites at Bombay, Madras, Karachi, Travancore, Poona and Cannanore.

Various missions in the Caribbean and Central and South America were established during the mid 19th century. A mission consisting of one Jesuit lasted in Jamaica from 1837 until 1893, when its jurisdiction was transferred to the Maryland and New York Province. Attempts to establish a mission in Honduras were made as early as 1821, but an official appointment was not made there until 1853; again, this English province was passed to an American Province (Missouri), in 1893. In 1857 the Jesuit mission in British Guiana (now Guyana) was assigned to the English province. British Jesuits were also present in Barbados and Belize.

Whilst not a strictly missionary undertaking, British Jesuits maintained a Mediterranean influence through their work in Malta during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the wake of the Napoleonic wars, the Catholic Church in Malta, along with the Society of Jesus, called upon British Jesuit educationalists to set up higher education colleges, as a means of diffusing the conflicting political, religious and cultural interests of the British and the Italians. These ran from around 1848 to 1907 (with an intermission between 1858 and 1877; property rights continued until 1928).

In Africa, English Jesuits established, in 1877, the Zambesi mission (in what is today Zambia and Zimbabwe). Today, the British Province has two dependent regions, Guyana and South Africa, and many British-born Jesuits can still be found at work in Zimbabwe.

Custodial history: Some material was originally housed at the Jesuit Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.

Immediate source of acquisition:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

Scope and content/abstract: Missionary-related holdings in the archives of the Society of Jesus, British Province are substantial but currently unquantified. They include numerous photographs, and some taped interviews relating to the African and Guyanan missions, as well as a complete run of the publications of the English, latterly British, Province, which contain articles on its missions and eulogies and obituaries of missionaries. The earliest missionary-related documents (relating to Maryland and New York) date from the 17th century. Specific holdings include:
17th century-1835: American archival material, including letters from Maryland and Pennsylvania.
1821-1897: archival material relating to Honduras, including correspondence, statistics and sketchmaps.
1832-1911: archival material relating to India (chiefly on Calcutta, including correspondence to and from this mission, lists of personnel, and accounts and financial details).
1837-1901: correspondence and a diary relating to Jamaica.
1848-1928: correspondence, reports and diaries (official and personal) relating to higher education colleges in Malta.
1854-1894: material relating to Belize.
1857-present: material relating to Barbados.
1857-present:(two files) letters and reports (including historical notes, and personal papers of the early 20th century missionary Father Cuthbert Cary-Elwes) from Guyana.
1878-1934: archival material from Zambesi, including statistical data, and material from pioneer missionaries such as Father Peter Prestage (diary (1882-83), Henry Schomberg Kerr (letters and journals), and Augustus Henry Law (letters, journals and diaries 1845-1880).
1894- present: archival material relating to South Africa.

System of arrangement: Official documents are filed under the name of the country or mission. Personal papers are filed by author.

ACCESS AND USE

Language: English.

Conditions governing access: A forty year closure period applies to archival material; official documents must be forty years old, and forty years must have elapsed since the death of depositing Jesuits before their personal papers may be consulted.

Conditions governing reproduction: For further details, apply to the Archivist.

Finding aids: Card catalogue.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material: Additional material relating to Jesuit work in Jamaica, India, Zimbabwe and South Africa can be found in the archives of these regions and provinces, and in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome.

Publication note:
Reverend Francis O. Edwards, ‘The archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus at Farm Street, London: Part 1’, Catholic Archives, 1 (1981), 20-25.
Reverend Francis O. Edwards, ‘The archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus at Farm Street, London: Part 2’, Catholic Archives, 2 (1982), 37-45.
Father Thomas M McCoog, A guide to Jesuit archives (St Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2001).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note: Compiled using:
The website of the British Province of the Society of Jesus.
Reverend Francis O. Edwards, ‘The archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus at Farm Street, London: Part 2’, Catholic Archives, 2 (1982), 37-45.
Missionary encounters: sources and issues, ed. by Robert A. Bickers and Rosemary Seton (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996).

Date(s) of descriptions: August 2002.

INDEX ENTRIES

Subjects

Accounting

Christians

Educational missionaries

Educational missionary work

Finance

Financial administration

Financial statements

Higher education institutions

History

Illustrations

Magnetic tape recordings

Maps

Mission administration

Mission policy

Missionaries

Missionary societies

Missionary work

Ordained missionaries

Personnel

Photographs

Recordings

Religious activities

Religious history

Religious movements

Religious organizations

Religous groups

Roman Catholic missionary societies

Roman Catholics

Sound recordings

Visual materials

Personal names

Cary-Elwes | Cuthbert | 1867-1945 | Jesuit priest and missionary in Guyana

Kerr | Henry Schomberg | 1838-1895 | Jesuit and sailor

Law | Augustus Henry | 1833-1881 | Jesuit priest and missionary in Zambia

Prestage | Peter | Jesuit priest and missionary in Zambia

Corporate names

Society of Jesus, British Province

Society of Jesus, English Province

Places

Africa

Americas

Asia

Barbados

Belize

Calcutta

Caribbean

Central America

Europe

Guyana

Honduras

India

Jamaica

Malta

Maryland

North America

South Africa

South America

South Asia

Southern Africa

USA

Western Europe

Zambia

Zimbabwe