Editing New College, Oxford (section)

== History ==
Despite its name, New College is one of the oldest of the Oxford colleges<!--7th of 39-->; it was founded in 1379 by [[William of Wykeham]], [[Bishop of Winchester]], as "Saint Mary College of Winchester in Oxenford", with both graduates and undergraduates.<ref name="stat">{{cite web |title=Statutes Made for the College of Saint Mary of Winchester in Oxford, Commonly Called New College, in Pursuance of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1923 |year=2016 |publisher=New College |url=https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/New-College-statutes.pdf |quote=His statutes provided for a college comprising a warden and 70 fellows, both graduates and, a novelty at the time, undergraduates.}}</ref><ref name="History">{{cite web |title=The History of New College |publisher=New College |url=https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/new-college-history |access-date=3 November 2022}}</ref>{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=68-69}}  It became known as "New College" because there was already a college dedicated to St Mary in Oxford ([[Oriel College]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The history of New College |url=https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/new-college-history |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=New College - Oxford}}</ref>

=== Foundation ===
{{see|Architecture of Winchester College}}

In 1379 William of Wykeham decided to found a college. He applied to [[King Richard II]] for a royal charter permitting the foundation.{{sfn|Prickard|1906|p=17}} In addition, he wrote a charter of his own, requiring his college to have a warden and seventy scholars. He purchased the necessary land in separate lots from the City of Oxford, [[Merton College]] and [[The Queen's College, Oxford|Queen's College]]. The area had been the City Ditch, a dangerous place by the city's wall; it had been used within living memory for burials during the [[Black Death in England|Black Death]].{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=25–26}}

The college was founded the same year in conjunction with a feeder school, [[Winchester College]] (founded 1382, opened 1394).<ref name="History"/><ref name="Winchester College Heritage">{{cite web |title=Winchester College: Heritage |url=https://www.winchestercollege.org/welcome/heritage |publisher=Winchester College |access-date=21 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126150709/https://www.winchestercollege.org/welcome/heritage |archive-date=26 January 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The two institutions have striking architectural similarities: both were the work of master mason [[William Wynford]].<ref name="Hayter 1970">{{cite book |last=Hayter |first=William Goodenough |author-link=William Hayter (diplomat) |title=William of Wykeham: Patron of the Arts |date=1970 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |page=75}}</ref> The first stone was laid on 5 March 1380. The college had occupied the buildings by 14 April 1386.{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=17–18}} William of Wykeham then drew up the statutes of the college.<ref name="History"/> The coat of arms of the college is William of Wykeham's. It features two black chevrons, one said to have been added when he became a bishop and the other possibly representing his skill with architecture, since the chevron was a device used by masons. Winchester College uses the same arms.{{sfn|Prickard|1906|p=22}} The college's [[motto]], created by William of Wykeham, is "Manners Makyth Man".<ref name="History"/>

New College was established to have prayers said for William of Wykeham's soul. He instructed that there were to be ten chaplains, three clerks and a [[choir]] of 16 choristers on the foundation of the college.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ofchoristers.net/Chapters/OxfordNewCollege.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050109033344/http://www.ofchoristers.net/Chapters/OxfordNewCollege.htm |archive-date=9 January 2005 |title=History of Oxford New College School |access-date=4 January 2009 |publisher=Of Choristers – ancient and modern }}</ref> 

As well as being one of the first Oxford colleges to take undergraduates and to appoint tutors to teach them,{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=68-69}}<ref name=VCHNew>{{cite book |editor-last1=Salter |editor-first1=H E |editor-last2=Lobel |editor-first2=Mary D. |title=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3, the University of Oxford |date=1954 |publisher=Victoria County History |location=London |pages=144–162 |chapter=New College |chapter-url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol3/pp144-162 |quote=Most previous colleges had been designed to enable graduates to proceed to higher degrees. New College was primarily designed to take undergraduates through their arts course;}}</ref> New College was the first in Oxford to be deliberately designed around a main [[Quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]].<ref name=VCHNew /> The college was about as large as all of the (six) existing Oxford colleges combined.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salter |first1=Herbert Edward |title=Medieval Oxford |date=1936 |publisher=Oxford Historical Society |location=Oxford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSktAAAAMAAJ |page=97 |quote=I estimate that in 1360 the six colleges which then existed would contain about 10 undergraduates, 23 bachelors and 40 masters.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cobban |first1=Alan B. |title=The Medieval English Universities |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7zorDwAAQBAJ |page=122 |isbn=9781351885805 |quote=prior to the virtual doubling of the number of fellowships with the foundation of New College in 1379, the six secular colleges supplied a total of only about 63 graduate fellows.}}</ref>

=== Civil wars ===
The Royalists used the cloisters and bell tower to store munitions early in the [[English Civil War]]. In August 1651, the college was fortified by Parliamentarian forces. In 1685, [[Monmouth Rebellion|Monmouth's rebellion]] involved Robert Sewster, a fellow of the college, who commanded a company of university volunteers, mostly from New College; they exercised on the bowling green.{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=72–73}}

=== Academic ===
Students at New College were until 1834 exempt from taking the university's examinations for the BA and (in earlier times) the MA degrees, and were also ineligible for honours, though they still had to take the college's own tests. The college used to have a reputation for "Golden scholars, silver bachelors, leaden masters and wooden doctors."{{sfn|Prickard|1906|pp=52-54, 57}} More recently, like many of Oxford's colleges, New College admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after six centuries as an institution for men only.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/college-history |title=The History of New College |publisher=New College |access-date=4 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413043446/http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/college-history |archive-date=13 April 2018 }}</ref>

In 2022, students at New College scored [[Norrington Table#Recent rankings|75.5]] on the [[Norrington Table]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/undergraduate-degree-classifications|title=Undergraduate Degree Classifications {{!}} University of Oxford|website=www.ox.ac.uk|accessdate=28 July 2024}}</ref>

The choristers were originally accommodated within the walls of the college, under one schoolmaster. Since then the school has expanded; in 1903 the choristers moved to [[New College School]] in Savile Road.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newcollege.oxon.sch.uk/subs.php?page=history |title=New College School, Oxford |access-date=4 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606111602/http://www.newcollege.oxon.sch.uk/subs.php?page=history |archive-date=6 June 2013}}</ref>