Dorothy Owen
{{Short description|English archivist and historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
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| name = Dorothy Owen
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| birth_date = 11 April 1920
| birth_place = Hyde, Cheshire
| death_date = {{d-da|13 February 2002|11 April 1920}}
| death_place = Thimbleby, Lincolnshire
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| nationality = English
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Dorothy Mary Owen, {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|MBE}}, née Williamson (11 April 1920 – 13 February 2002) was an English archivist and historian.
Life
Born in Hyde, Cheshire and educated at Manchester University, Dorothy Williamson undertook postgraduate study there under C. R. Cheney, writing her dissertation on the legation of Cardinal Otto of Tonengo in the British Isles, 1237–1241.Christopher Harper-Bill, [http://www.sal.org.uk/obituaries/dorothyowen Obituary: Dorothy Owen] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828215213/http://www.sal.org.uk/obituaries/dorothyowen |date=28 August 2008 }}, The Independent, 1 March 2002
From 1948 to 1958 she was assistant archivist at the Lincolnshire Archives. In 1958 she married Arthur Owen, a fellow archivist and historian, and moved to London to be archivist at Lambeth Palace Library. In 1960 the pair moved to Cambridge, where Arthur had been appointed to a job at Cambridge University Library.
Owen was soon instructing students in palaeography and diplomatic, and working on the diocesan records of Ely, recently deposited in the university library. She was formally appointed custodian of ecclesiastical archives in 1968 and keeper of the university archives in 1978. In 1969 she was elected a fellow of Wolfson College. She was active in the British Records Association, and served as chairman of its Records Preservation Section, 1966–71; chairman of council, 1974–78; and vice-president, 1981–91.{{cite book |title=Jubilee essays: the British Records Association, 1932–1992 |year=1992 |place=London |publisher=British Records Association |pages=4, 55–63}}
In 1987 she held the Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge.Owen, Dorothy M. 1990. The Medieval Canon Law: Teaching, Literature, and Transmission. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.
In 1995 she was appointed MBE. She died in Thimbleby, Lincolnshire.
Works
- {{Cite book|title=The Records of the Established Church in England |publisher=British Records Association |series=Archives and the User |volume=1 |year=1970 |location=London }}
- {{Cite book |title=Church and Society in Medieval Lincolnshire |place=Lincoln |publisher=Lincolnshire Local History Society |year=1971 |series=History of Lincolnshire |volume=5 |isbn=0-902668-04-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/churchsocietyinm0005owen }}
- The Library and Muniments of Ely Cathedral. Ely: Dean and Chapter of Ely, 1973.
- (ed.) {{Cite book|title=John Lydford's Book |year=1974 |place=London |publisher=H.M.S.O. |isbn=0-11-440046-6 }}
- {{Cite book|title=The Making of King's Lynn: a documentary survey |year=1984 |place=London |publisher=British Academy |isbn=0-19-726027-6 }}
- {{Cite book |title=The Medieval Canon Law: teaching, literature, and transmission |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |isbn=0-521-39313-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/medievalcanonlaw0000owen }}
- (ed.) {{Cite book|title=A History of Lincoln Minster |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-521-25429-8 }}
References
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Category:Fellows of Wolfson College, Cambridge
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:20th-century English historians
Category:British women medievalists