The Margaret Beaufort Institute was founded in 1993 as a Roman Catholic house for women to take theology courses in the Cambridge Theological Federation (CTF) and the University of Cambridge. Among our early supporters were members of religious orders and congregations, most notably Sister Pia Buxton IBVM and Dr. Chris Moss SJ. We have always been supported by the Canonesses of St. Augustine, and Sr. Jenny Dines, its Provincial, is one of the longest-standing members of our council.

Dedicated founders and fundraisers such as Professor Janet Soskice (Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge), Rosemary Boyle (a lawyer in Cambridge), Susan O’Brien (Head of History at the then Anglia Polytechnic University and later a Principal of MBI), Deborah Jones, and Janet Lash ensured the academic, legal, and physical setup of the Institute. Our first rented space was Lady Margaret House in Grange Road (the convent of the Canonesses of St. Augustine), before moving to Wesley House on Jesus Lane. In 2000, we moved back to Lady Margaret House and stayed there for 23 years until its sale to Queens’ College Cambridge. In 2023-2024, we enjoyed the warm hospitality of Wesley House. In the summer of 2024, we moved to our current long-term home at the Woolf Institute.

The Institute is named after Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), a scholar, astute manager of resources, and significant philanthropist. As the richest woman in medieval England, she used her wealth to support religion and education. She was the mother of Henry Tudor, her only son from three marriages, who became King Henry VII. In 1485, she assumed the title of the King’s Mother. Cambridge became the focus of much of her philanthropy through her confessor, St. John Fisher, who was Chancellor of the University. Working with Fisher, she founded two Cambridge colleges, Christ’s and St. John’s, and endowed the Lady Margaret Professorships of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge. Margaret herself translated and published one of the most widely read devotional texts of all time, the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.

Our first student, Sister Naomi Turner, came from Australia for a postdoctoral sabbatical. The first and longest-serving principal was Sister Bridget Tighe FMDM, followed by Dr. Susan O’Brien, Dr. Oonagh O’Brien, and currently Dr. Anna Abram.

Over the years, we have grown in numbers (students, participants, courses, and projects) and in the value and impact we make on individuals and communities both in the UK and beyond. Although we have changed our location several times, we have not changed our key commitments to foster transformation through teaching, research, and pastoral practice, and to prioritize women.