Dorothy Wadham

Dorothy Wadham (/ˈwɒdəm/; née Petre) (1534/1535 – 16 May 1618) was the wife of Nicholas Wadham (1531-1609) of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, Somerset and of Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon and as his widow in pursuance of his wishes, was the foundress of Wadham College, Oxford. She has the distinction of being the first woman who was not a member of the Royal Family or titled aristocracy to found a college at Oxford or Cambridge.

Dorothy was the second and eldest surviving child of the very wealthy Sir William Petre (c.1505-1572), Secretary of State to four successive Tudor monarchs (namely Kings Henry VIII, Edward VI and Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I), who had acquired much property following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Her mother was Gertrude Tyrrell, daughter of Sir John Tyrrell. Her date of birth as 1535 may be deduced from one of her two portraits in Wadham College, which gives her age as sixty in 1595. Part of the Petre inheritance received by Dorothy came from grants made by Queen Mary to her father Sir William Petre, of lands formerly held by Lady Jane Grey and forfeited to the crown, which had come in part from the great heiress Cecily Bonville, of Shute, Devon.

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