This watch, likely made by the royal watchmaker Edward East in the 1630s, is one of the smallest treasures in the College’s collection. It is also one of the most mysterious.

Donated to College by our great 17th century Principal Leoline Jenkins, we don’t know for certain who owned it prior to him. However, it has long been conjectured that it was part of the possessions of Henrietta Maria, wife to Charles I. Was this one of the watch-loving King’s many timepieces? And what does it reveal about Leoline Jenkins?

Emeritus Fellow Dr Felicity Heal reveals what we know about this beautiful timepiece, and introduces us to another item from our collection with links to Charles I. Watch here.

The magnificent ten-gallon silver-gilt punch bowl was given to the College by the Welsh alumnus, magnate and politician, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (1692-1749). The occasion of the presentation was the award of an honorary doctorate in 1732. The bowl weighs over 200 ounces (5.7 kg) and is by far the most substantial and memorable piece of college plate. It has not only served at table at the St David’s Day feast, but has apparently in emergency served the college Chapel as an improvised font.

Sir Watkin, like many other Oxonians in the first half of the eighteenth century was a Jacobite and a firm, if prudent, supporter of the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. So much so that to drink the health of ‘Sir Watkin Williams Wynn’ was a coded substitute for drinking the health of the Pretender. Thus, this fine piece of Georgian silver has a part to play as witness not only to the long and happy Welsh connections of the College, but to the dissident politics of eighteenth-century Oxford. Professor Peter Davidson explores the hidden political history of the punch bowl in a special 450th video here.

Few dissertations have invited as much public interest, or as much scholarly discussion, as the dissertation written by Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888–1935)—the future ‘Lawrence of Arabia’—and submitted before his finals in 1910. This dissertation, entitled ‘The influence of the Crusades on European military architecture to the end of the twelfth century’, was the product of a remarkable research expedition undertaken by Lawrence in the summer of 1909. Read more here.

Dr Ayoush Lazikani, Lecturer in English at Jesus College, and Dr Hugh Doherty, Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, explore the composition of T E Lawrence’s Finals thesis and what unique insights it gives us as to the interests, thoughts, and ambitions of the young Jesus undergraduate who would become ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ in a film here.

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, PC, FRS, FSS (1916 -1995) attended Jesus College from 1934 – 1937, studying Modern History and Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He went on to serve as Prime Minister twice, from 1964 -1970 and again from 1974 -1976. Following his second term as Prime Minister, Wilson was created a Knight of the Garter and awarded a banner (c. 1977) which was hung in St George’s Chapel Windsor. Following Wilson’s death, the banner came to College and is now displayed in our own Chapel.

Professor Patricia Clavin FBA, Professor Richard Bosworth, and our archivist Dr Robin Darwall-Smith discuss the banner, Wilson’s student essays, and his time at Jesus in a video here.

It may be the Fellows or the students of an Oxbridge College which attract most attention, but no College could function without its non-academic staff working away in the background, whether they are cleaning rooms, cooking and serving food, or helping administer the different departments of the College. Staff members have an essential role in College life, but it is one that is easy to pass over. This object, therefore, aims to pay tribute to College members of staff in this anniversary year.

In 1969 a group photo was taken of all College members of staff. Surprisingly, perhaps, this appears to be the earliest such photo in our archives. There are some remarkable links, though, with earlier ages: one of the staff members photographed was Fred Reeley, who had first come to work at the College in 1900, became Head Porter, and carried on doing so for us until he finally retired in 1970, after seven decades’ service to Jesus. The photo also shows many women then working for the College – clear proof that Jesus was not a completely all-male establishment before the first women students arrived in 1974.

In a new film, College Archivist Dr. Robin Darwall-Smith, Head Chef Anand Dube and Catering Team Member Anne Gahungu discuss the 1969 photo, and talk about how their roles differ from their predecessors. Watch here.

During this past year, to mark our 450th Anniversary, we have celebrated the treasures of College. To conclude this series, we focus on the portrait of Professor Patricia Daley, Helen Morag Fellow and Tutor in Geography and Professor of the Human Geography of Africa. This stunning photograph formed part of a ‘Portraits of a College’ series, commissioned by College as a permanent exhibition in 2016. The photographer, Ander McIntyre (1976), read English at Jesus and studied Renaissance English drama at the Shakespeare Institute. He specialises in portrait photography of celebrated individuals and has taken photographs of more than a hundred Presidents and Prime Ministers, as well as many Nobel laureates, artists, politicians, writers, and architects.