Who were the Nuns?

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• Professed after 1600165017001750
• Professed before 1650170017501800
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Details

Elizabeth Clifton, in religion Anne Benedict.
Died: 6 Jan bef 1712 in Dunkirk.

father: Sir Thomas Clifton bart of Westby & Clifton, Lancs
mother: Anne Halsall of Halsall Hall, Lancs

Benedictines, Dunkirk choir nun.

She professed 10 Aug 1676.

She was the sister of Margaret Clifton, Dorothy Clifton, Elizabeth Clifton, Ann Clifton.
She was the aunt of Bridgett Wesbye, Mary Howard, Anne Mary Clifton.
She was the great aunt of Ann Clifton, Isabel Clifton, Jane Clifton, Julia Clifton, Ann Clifton.
She was the cousin of Ann Clifton.
She was the niece of Dorothy Clifton, Catherine Clifton .

Sources: Dunkirk History: 64.

Family tree (Clifton of Clifton)
Family tree (Heneage)

Notes:

History 64 gives her mother as Anne Halsall, and says she had seven sisters, three of whom were nuns at Gravelines. Although the date details suggest at first sight that Anne was more likely her grandmother, it seems that Anne is well-documented as the mother of 13 children borne over a period of nearly 30 years from her marriage in 1618. The evidence is detailed in http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clifton/clifton/c8a.htm, based upon evidence from original documents in The Clifton Papers, by R. Cunliffe Shaw (1935). Five of Anne's daughters are said to have been nuns. Visitation of Lancs 1664-5, p. 87 shows four of them, including Elizabeth a nun at Dunkirk. If the date of profession is correct, this will have been Elizabeth GP077, who was one of the Gravelines Poor Clares who founded the community at Dunkirk in 1654. The fifth one was possibly this nun, who may have been the daughter Anne, b. c. 1638 according to the website cited. The difficulty is the date of profession, which seems very late for the given parentage. Perhaps there was an error in the date or she was a widow.