Nationality English Education University of Reading Name Doris Stenton | Known for Medieval historian Other names Doris Mary Parsons Resting place Halloughton | |
Born August 27, 1894 ( 1894-08-27 ) Reading, Berkshire Alma mater University College, Reading Occupation University lecturer and writer Died 1971, Reading, United Kingdom Books The English Woman in History | ||
Doris Mary Stenton, (1894–1971) was an English historian of the Middle Ages.
Life
Born Doris Mary Parsons, she was the daughter of John Parsons and his wife Amelia Wadhams. She was their only child and was born in Reading, Berkshire on 27 August 1894. Her father was a cabinet-maker. She attended the Abbey School in Reading before entering the University College at Reading in 1912. She earned a first-class London degree in 1916. In 1919 she married Frank Stenton, who held the first chair of history at Reading and was already known as a medievalist.
Even before her marriage, however, Stenton had begun work on the transcription of the charters of the cathedral chapter of Lincoln Cathedral. This project led to the first of Stenton's editorial jobs, the edition of The Earliest Lincolnshire Assize Rolls, A.D. 1202–1209 which was published by the Lincoln Record Society in 1926. Another fruit of the Lincoln project was the revival of the Pipe Roll Society, which had become dormant. In 1922, the Stentons, along with Canon Foster of Lincoln Cathedral and Leonard Owen began discussions that revived the society. Further conversations led to Doris Stenton being appointed organising secretary of the society in 1923. It was mainly due to her efforts that the society became an important publishing source for medieval historians.
In 1948 Stenton earned a Doctor of Letters degree from Reading, and in 1953 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). She also was known as Lady Stenton from 1948, when her husband was knighted. Other honours included honorary doctorates from Glasgow University and Oxford University and being selected as an honorary fellow at St Hilda's College at Oxford. She became a senior lecturer in the history department at Reading in 1952 and a reader in that department in 1955.
Up until Frank Stenton's death in 1967, both Stentons were engaged in numerous writing projects, but after her husband's death, Stenton concentrated on completing the third edition of his Anglo-Saxon England as well as issuing a collected edition of his papers. She completed that in 1971. She was troubled by deafness in her last years, and died on 29 December 1971 at Reading after an illness that lasted a week. She was buried at Halloughton, Nottinghamshire on 5 January 1972 in the same grave as her husband.
Both Stenton and her husband were devoted to the study of history, with both being known and esteemed for their historical studies.