View source for Frank Stenton

{{Short description|English historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[Sir]]
| name               = Frank Stenton
| image              = Frank Merry Stenton.jpg
| image_size         = 200px
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1880|5|17|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Manchester]], England
| spouse             = [[Doris Mary Stenton]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1967|9|15|1880|5|17|df=yes}}
| death_place        = 
| resting_place      = [[Halloughton]], [[Nottinghamshire]]
| nationality        = [[England|English]]
| known_for          = 
| education          = [[Keble College, Oxford]]
| alma_mater         = 
| occupation         = Historian
}}

'''Sir Frank Merry Stenton''' [[Fellow of the British Academy|<small>FBA</small>]] (17 May 1880 – 15 September 1967) was an English historian of [[Anglo-Saxon England]], a professor of history at the University of Reading (1926–1946), president of the [[Royal Historical Society]] (1937–1945),<ref>[http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/historians/stenton_frank.html Institute of Historical Research, Summary]; [http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/aboutus.htm Royal Historical Society, 'About Us'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209163942/http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/aboutus.htm |date=2010-02-09 }}. Retrieved 19 February 2010.</ref> Reading University's vice-chancellor (1946–1950).

==Life==

The son of [[Henry Stenton]] of [[Southwell, Nottinghamshire]],<ref name="BOOK">{{cite book |title=Northamptonshire Past and Present |date=1960 |publisher=Northamptonshire Record Society |volume=3-4 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spJnAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> he was educated at [[Keble College, Oxford]], and was elected an [[Oxbridge Fellow|Honorary Fellow]] in 1947.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Keble College Centenary Register 1870–1970|editor=Drennan, Basil St G.|year=1970|publisher=Keble College, Oxford|isbn=978-0-85033-048-9|page=3}}</ref>

With [[Allen Mawer]], Stenton wrote the second [[English Place-Name Society]] volume, ''The Place-Names of Buckinghamshire'', published in 1925. He delivered the [[Ford Lectures]] at [[Oxford University]] in 1929. He went on to write ''Anglo-Saxon England'', a volume of the [[Oxford History of England]], first published in 1943 and described by [[Simon Keynes]] as "magisterial and massively authoritative".<ref>{{cite book|last=Keynes |first=Simon |chapter=Introduction|page=xxi|edition=3rd |title=An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England by Peter Hunter Blair with a New Introduction by Simon Keynes |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location =Cambridge, UK |year=2003|isbn=978-0-521-83085-0}}</ref> In the view of [[N. J. Higham|Nicholas Higham]] writing in 1992 it "remains the most complete study of Anglo-Saxon history that has ever appeared. He was himself a historian of the first rank, an eminent place-name scholar and in addition well versed in archaeological literature."<ref>{{cite book|last=Higham |first=Nicholas  |title=Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons|page=7 |publisher=Seaby |location =London, UK |year=1992|isbn=978-1-85264-022-4}}</ref>

Stenton was a professor of history at the [[University of Reading]] (1926 – 1946), and subsequently the university's vice-chancellor (1946–1950). During his period as vice-chancellor at Reading, he presided over the university's purchase of [[Whiteknights Park]], creating the new campus that allowed for the expansion of the university in later decades. In November 2008, it was announced that a new hall of residence to be constructed on that campus would be named Stenton Hall, in his honour.<ref name=frankstent>{{cite web | url = http://www.reading.ac.uk/bulletin/pdfs/489.pdf | title = University of Reading Bulletin (20 November 2008) | publisher = University of Reading | page = 3 | access-date = 2008-11-20}} {{Dead link|date=May 2018}}</ref> The annual Stenton Lecture, given by an eminent historian, was inaugurated at Reading University in 1967.<ref name=Reading_Uni>{{cite web |title=Stenton Lecture |website=University of Reading, Dept. of History |url=https://www.reading.ac.uk/history/research/hist-stentonlectures.aspx |access-date=4 May 2018 }}</ref>

He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[1948 New Year Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38161 |supp=y|page=2|date=30 December 1947}}</ref> and received the [[accolade]] from [[George VI of the United Kingdom|King George VI]] at Buckingham Palace on 10 February 1948.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38207|pages=1035–1036|date=13 February 1948}}</ref>

His wife, [[Doris Mary Stenton]], wrote a preface to the third edition of ''Anglo-Saxon England'', published after his death, and edited ''Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England: Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton'', published in 1970. She was a historian in her own right, producing ''English Society in the Early Middle Ages'' for the [[Pelican Books|Pelican]] History of England, and ''The English Woman in History'' (1957).<ref name=Reading_Uni />  They are buried together at [[Halloughton]], [[Nottinghamshire]].<ref>Major "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31718 Stenton, Doris Mary, Lady Stenton (1894–1971)]" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref>

Stenton's papers, together with those of his wife Doris, Lady Stenton, their library and his coin collection are part of the Special Collections in the [[University of Reading]].

==Publications==
Stenton's major publications were ''The First Century of English Feudalism, 1066–1166'' (1932) and ''Anglo-Saxon England'' (1943). Other publications include:

* [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-229X.1920.tb01326.x/abstract "The Danes in England". ''History'', '''5''' (1920): 173–177. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1920.tb01326.x]
* [https://archive.org/stream/typesofmanorials02stenuoft/typesofmanorials02stenuoft_djvu.txt Types of Manorial Structure in the Northern Danelaw]
* [https://archive.org/stream/documentsillustr00stenuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Documents illustrative of the social and economic history of the Danelaw, from various collections (1920)]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or|Frank Merry Stenton}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frank Stenton}}
* [http://www.reading.ac.uk/library/special-collections/collections/lib-special-stenton-papers.asp Stenton Papers]
* [http://www.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/collections/sc-stenton.aspx Stenton Library]
* [http://www.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/collections/sc-stenton-coins.aspx Stenton Coin Collection]
* [https://www.britnumsoc.org/meetings/1958-stenton-lecture Audio recording] of Stenton's 1958 lecture "The Anglo-Saxon Coinage and Historians" to the British Numismatic Society

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box |
  before=[[F.M. Powicke]]|
  title=[[Royal Historical Society|President of the Royal Historical Society]] |
  years=1937–1945|
  after=[[Robert William Seton-Watson]]
}}
{{end}}

{{Presidents of the Royal Historical Society}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stenton, Frank}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English historians]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Reading]]
[[Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon studies scholars]]
[[Category:English medievalists]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Historical Society]]
[[Category:Toponymists]]
[[Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Reading]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Victoria County History]]
[[Category:Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America]]