The College Archives hold a large collection of documents, photographs, and printed papers, beginning with Elizabeth I’s foundation charter in 1571, which constitute a rich and unique resource for the study of the people, decisions, traditions and events that have contributed to the development of the College we know today.
The first forty years of the College’s history are surprisingly poorly documented, but after that period these are the types of records which we hold here:
- Records on the Governance of the College, including College Registers back to 1602, Governing Body minutes, and versions of our Statutes from 1622.
- Financial records, including Bursar’s accounts from 1631 to 1881 and a nearly unbroken series of Battel and Buttery Books from 1637 to 1947.
- Records on the College’s estates in both England and Wales. However, deeds relating to properties which the College no longer owns have been given to the relevant county record offices.
- Plans, drawings and related papers concerning College buildings.
- Papers on College clubs and societies, including JCR minute books from 1892, and ephemera and photographs relating to the College’s sports clubs, and its Music Society.
- Admission Registers and related records from 1882.
In addition, donations of documents and photographs by Old Members of the College and external sources are always welcome because they help the College Archivist to add to this hugely important resource and to research new and forgotten areas of College life. In return, the resources of the Archive are made available to all enquirers with a need to use them – academics, Old Members, local historians or those just interested in what their grandparent was doing at Oxford.
We are now starting to put some of our catalogues of personal papers online. These can be found below. This is an ongoing process, and so these lists represent only a small part of our collection. For example, some of the more significant collections of personal papers which have not yet been published online include:
- Papers of the Victorian historian J. R. Green (1837-83)
- Papers of Francis Mansell (Principal 1620-1, 1630-48 and 1660-1)
- Papers of Sir Leoline Jenkins (Principal 1661-73)
- Papers of Thomas Pardo (Principal 1727-63)
- The papers of JOSEPH HOARE (PR. 1768-1802)
- The papers of DAVID HUGHES (MATR. 1770; F. 1774-1802; PR. 1802-17)
- The papers of HENRY FOULKES (MATR. 1790; F. 1796-1817; PR. 1817-57)
- The papers of SIR JOHN RHŶS (F. 1877-95; PR. 1895-1915)
- The papers of SIR FREDERICK WOOLF OGILVIE (PR. 1944-9)
- The papers of JOHN TRAILL CHRISTIE (PR. 1950-67)
- Papers of Percy William Dodd (Fellow 1919-31)
- Papers of William Dyke (Fellow 1835-62)
- Papers of Edmund Salusbury Ffoulkes (Fellow 1842-54)
- Papers of Ernest Ely Genner (Fellow 1903-26)
- Papers of John Godfrey Griffith (Fellow 1938-80)
- Papers of John Griffiths (Fellow 1863-1916)
- Papers of Frank Llewelyn Harrison (Fellow 1965-70)
- Papers of Sir Ernest Bagnall Poulton (Fellow 1898-1943)
- Papers of Edward Crossley Thompson (Fellow 1945-86)
- Manuscript of D. Phil. thesis of Anatole Abragam (matr. 1948; Hon. Fellow 1976)
- Papers of Frank Howard Andrews (matr. 1935) from the Estate of Mrs. Rita Andrews
- Chemistry notebooks of Francis Banbury (matr. 1927) and Ernest Boller (matr. 1926)
- Pages from a photograph album concerning William Barratt (matr. 1882), 1930s
- Photograph from Kenneth Bartholomew (matr. 1940) of the Jesus/St. Catherine’s Cricket Team, 1942
- Page from Harper’s Weekly, 1863, on the death of Frederick John Holt Beever (matr. 1849; F. 1855-63)
- Letter of recommendation from Sir John Rhys for Michael Billings (matr. 1896)
- Memoirs of Peter Bleackley (matr. 1933)
- Scientific Papers of Muriel Chapman (nee Holmes), 1920s-1930s
- Ephemera of E. Ivor Clarry (matr. 1938)
- Reminiscences of Iolo Davies (matr. 1938)
- Letter from Thomas Davies (matr. 1817) applying for a teaching position, 1818
- Photographs from Frank Dickinson (matr. 1930)
- Notes on English Constitutional History by William Edwards (matr. 1892)
- Composite Photograph of the Jesus College Rugby XV, 1919/20, from D. M. Evans (matr. 1912)
- Undergraduate Notebooks of John Cadwallader Evans (matr. 1872)
- Ephemera of Donald Godden (matr. 1936)
- MS copy of Biography of J. R. Green (matr. 1855)
- Ephemera of Richard Cerdin Griffiths (matr. 1934)
- Ephemera of Gilbert Vaughan Harries (matr. 1932)
- Notes of Law Lectures given by Alfred Hazel (matr. 1888; F. 1898-1925; Pr. 1925-44)
- Reminiscences of Paul Hubbell (matr. 1914)
- Photograph including Joseph Huckwell (matr. 1878)
- Photograph Album of Frederick Hughes (matr. 1913)
- Memoirs of Ifor Elwyn Hughes (matr. 1926)
- Ephemera and Photographs of Gwynne Ivor Jones (matr. 1932)
- Papers of and concerning Hugh Jones (matr. 1832; Fellow 1839-45) and Edward Hugh-Jones (matr. 1879)
- Diaries of John Jones of Dolgellau (matr. 1792)
- Memorabilia of the Very Rev. William Edward Jones (matr. 1919)
- Essay submitted by Paul Kent (matr. 1950) for the Rolleston Memorial Prize
- Ephemera from Edward Arthur Henry Key (matr. 1945)
- Commonplace Book of John Langley (matr. 1683)
- Papers concerning T. E. Lawrence (matr. 1907)
- Papers of Frederick Charles Lay (matr. 1918), mainly on the Quatercentenary of Jesus College
- Ephemera of Denis Lester (matr. 1924)
- Memoirs of Thomas Price Merfyn Lewis (matr. 1922)
- Photographs of an Oxford Mock Funeral from Thomas Merion Lloyd (matr. 1919)
- Ephemera and Letters of Dylan Morgan (matr. 1964)
- Ephemera of Bryan Ostler (matr. 1930)
- Tutorial Essays and Collections in English of William Phillips (matr. 1920)
- Journal of Alfred Frederick Pollard (matr. 1887), 1886-8
- Essays submitted by Ronald Pugh (matr. 1951) for the Gladstone Memorial Prize and Exhibition
- Rowing Memorabilia of David Ravens (matr. 1948)
- Musical Ephemera of William Dyfri Rees (matr. 1934)
- Copies of letters from Sir John Rhys (matr. 1865; Fellow 1877-95; Principal 1895-1915)
- Photographs from Llewelyn Lewis Rowland (matr. 1931)
- Ephemera of James Douglas Smith (matr. 1948), mainly on music
- Photographs from Arthur Spencer Thomas (later Vaughan-Thomas) (matr. 1927)
- Welsh Religious Engraving presented to Thomas Thomas (matr. 1824; Fellow 1835-59), 1838
- Photographs from Kenneth Charles Thompson (matr. 1922)
- Papers of John Dugdale Turner (matr. 1933)
- Photograph album and ephemera of Frederick Wilkins (matr. 1901)
- Papers of John Williams (matr. 1756; Fellow 1762-70) and family
- Volume of translations from Russian and Czech, possibly by John Evan Williams (matr. 1853)
- Papers relating to Harold Wilson (matr. 1934)
- Miscellaneous Memories of Jesus College, 1920s-1940s
- 18th Century Manuscript copy of The Description of Wales (1602) by George Owen of Henllys
- Latin Poem, 1628
- Medical “Diary”, 1661-1662
- Letter from John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, to the Duke of Ormond, c. 1677-85
- MS Copy of Anti-Lutheran Tract by Thomas Deane, Fellow of University College, published 1688
- Copy of the Statutes of Ruthin School, 1699
- Two incomplete Latin Poems, early 18th century
- Letter from Thomas Hearne, 1728/9
- Papers of Browne Willis (1682-1760), Antiquarian
- Commonplace Book of William Le Marchant (matr. Pembroke College 1699) with reference to Jesus College
- Minute Books of the Denbighshire and Flintshire society (later the North Wales Society), Oxford, 1773-1826
- Papers on the Revisions made to the 1840 Edition of the Welsh Book of Common Prayer
- Notes of Andrew Clark on the early Buttery Books of Jesus College
- Papers of Thomas Hudson-Williams (1873-1961)
- A Welsh translation of Macbeth, sometimes attributed to Hudson-Williams
- List of Jesus Matriculands, 1572-1714, compiled by Joseph Foster, 1895
- Notes on Memorials to the Family of Principal Griffith Lloyd in the Church of St. Michael at the Northgate, 1895 and 1962
- Letter from Frederick Rolfe (“Baron Corvo”), 1905
- Papers on Robert Clive (“Clive of India”) assembled by Sir George Forrest, c. 1916-18
- Papers of Sir Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) on Early British History
- Postcard sent during a conference held at Jesus College, 1920
- Two Gladstone Memorial Prize Essays, 1939 and 1954
- Papers of Bernard Quail, 1943-52
- Letter from Mahatma Gandhi, 1947
- Papers on the Bible Garden, Bangor, 1959-84
- Autograph manuscript, with papers and recording of Peter Maxwell Davies, From Stone to Thorn, 1971
- Volume of Notes on the Duties of a Justice of the Peace, given by Thomas Pardo (Principal 1727-63) to a Jesus Undergraduate, 1751
- A Summary of John Spencer’s Discourse Concerning Prodigies, 18th cent.
- Notebook of Arithmetic Exercises, 1752
- Miscellaneous Theological notes, 18th cent.
- Three notebooks of notes on Science Lectures, mid-18th century
- Miscellaneous examples of undergraduate work from the 18th and early 19th centuries
- Stereoscopic photograph of the Chapel, late 19th century
- Photograph of a Jesus College Bump Supper, 1903
- Jesus College Freshmen’s Photograph of 1912
- Letters and Photographs sent from the Families of Jesus College Members killed in the First World War
- College photographs from unknown donor, 1919-23
- Photograph of group of Jesus College students, 1932
- Handwritten Dinner Menus, 1933
- Jesus College Mathematics Entrance Examination, 1937
- Play programme for the Caroline Players, 1953
- Student Musical Ephemera, 1964-5