By 1645, the Cambrai community under Abbess Catherine Gascoigne had increased to 50 nuns, and was living in conditions of extreme poverty.

On 6 February 1652, the community was established in Paris as the Priory of Our Lady of Good Hope under Dame Bridget More as their Prioress.

She was a direct descendant of the martyr, St Thomas More, and had been taught at Cambrai under the spiritual supervision of the great mystical theologian, Dom Augustine Baker.

In 1836, they finally settled at Mount Pleasant, Colwich, an eighteenth century building which had been rebuilt in Gothic style.

A daughter house, the Priory of St. Scholastica, at Atherstone in Warwickshire, continued as a separate community until 1967 when the nuns returned to Colwich.