St. John's College, Oxford

St John's College
University	Oxford
Location	St Giles'
Coordinates	51°45′22″N 1°15′31″W / 51.75612°N 1.258605°W / 51.75612; -1.258605
Full name	Saint John Baptist College
Latin name	Collegium Sancti Johannis Baptistae
Founder	Sir Thomas White
Established	1555
Named for	Saint John the Baptist
Sister college	Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
President	Margaret J. Snowling
Undergraduates	385 (2016)
Postgraduates	221
Website	Homepage
Boat club	Boatclub
Map
Location in Oxford city centre

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1555 by the merchant Sir Thomas White, intended to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary. St John's is the wealthiest college in Oxford, with a financial endowment of £442.2 million as of 2015, largely due to nineteenth century suburban development of land in the city of Oxford of which it is the ground landlord.

The college occupies a central location on St Giles' and has a student body of approximately 390 undergraduates and 250 postgraduates. As well as over 100 academic staff, the college is supported by a similar number of other staff.

On 1 May 1555, Sir Thomas White, lately Lord Mayor of London, obtained a Royal Patent of Foundation to create a charitable institution for the education of students within the University of Oxford. White, a Roman Catholic, originally intended St John's to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary, and indeed Edmund Campion, the Roman Catholic martyr, studied here.

White acquired buildings on the east side of St Giles', north of Balliol and Trinity Colleges, which had belonged to the former College of St Bernard, a monastery and house of study of the Cistercian order that had been closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Initially the new St John's College was rather small and not well endowed financially. During the reign of Elizabeth I the fellows lectured in rhetoric, Greek, and dialectic, but not directly in theology. However, St John's initially had a strong focus on the creation of a proficient and educated priesthood.