Explore a Rich History Spanning 600 Years

Founded in 1427 the College has educated thousands of students, refurbished and developed its historic buildings, and established itself as a place of cutting-edge research. You can explore the College's rich history using the interactive timeline below.

1427: Lincoln College is founded by Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln.
1436: Emily Carr and her husband give the College property on the High Street.
1437: The College receives generous bequests from benefactors that permit the construction of the Chapel, Library, Hall, Kitchen and a set of rooms.
1465: A bequest from the will of Thomas Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, allows the College to build the first Lodgings for the Rector.
1478: The Visitor, Thomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln, obtains a Charter from Edward IV, which effectively makes him the second founder of the College.
1489: The Mitre Inn is first leased to the College.
1574: The grant of the College coat of arms is confirmed.
1611: The Authorised Version of the Bible is published; the latter part of which was translated by Rector Richard Kilby and Fellow Richard Brett.
1629: The College Chapel is built in the Jacobean Gothic style.
1631: The College Chapel is consecrated.
1642: Lincoln houses the King’s Chaplain and other officers during the Civil Wars.
1662: Lincoln establishes the SCR, the second Oxford College to do so.
1717: Former Rector, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, leaves a benefaction for the founding 12 new exhibitions and improving the College buildings.
1726: John Wesley is elected a Fellow of Lincoln. Wesley’s involvement in the ‘Holy Club’ laid the foundations for the Methodist Church.
1861: Mark Pattison, reputed to have inspired the character of Edward Casaubon in George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch, is elected Rector.
1880: The Lincoln College Boat Club is established. Today, there are male and female crews for all abilities.
1882: The philosopher Samuel Alexander is elected a Fellow of Lincoln College, and becomes the first Jewish Fellow of an Oxford college.
1919: The Lincoln College Debating Society, founded in 1854, is renamed and becomes the JCR.
1925: Theodor Seuss Geisel matriculates at Lincoln. He went on to write over 60 children’s books as ‘Dr Seuss’.
1938: Egon Wellesz, composer and musicologist, is elected Fellow after fleeing Nazi persecution in Vienna.
1945: Fellow Howard Florey shares the Nobel Prize with Ernst Boris Chain and Alexander Fleming for the development of penicillin.
1949: Addition of Grove fourth floor.
1952: David Cornwell, better known as John Le Carré, matriculates at Lincoln. He is reported to have worked for MI5 while at the College.
1959: The Middle Common Room (MCR) for graduate students is founded, the first common room of its kind in Oxford.
1975: All Saints Church is converted into the College Library. Many of the original architectural features remain.
1979: The College admits female students for the first time.
1980: The College appoints its first female Tutorial Fellow, Dr Susan Brigden, a historian.
2006: The Lincoln-EPA Graduate Centre is Opened in Museum Road, providing additional accommodation for 52 graduate students.
2011: College commissions a portrait of the Chef and Butler. This portrait is hung in the Hall.
2014: The Berrow Foundation Building, designed by architects Stanton Williams, is completed and wins the 2017 RIBA South Building of the Year Award.
2021: The College hires its first sustainability coordinator.
2022: Lincoln launches the Pathfinders Programme.