Merton College, Oxford

Merton College
Oxford
South facade as seen from Merton Field
Arms: Or, three chevronels party per pale, the first and third azure and gules, the second gules and azure
Coordinates	51°45′04″N 1°15′07″W / 51.751°N 1.252°W / 51.751; -1.252
Full name	The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford
Latin name	Domus sive collegium scholarium de Merton in universitate Oxon.[1]
Motto	"Qui Timet Deum Faciet Bona" ("He who fears God shall do good")
Established	1264; 760 years ago (1264)
Named for	Walter de Merton
Sister college	Peterhouse, Cambridge
Warden	Jennifer Payne[2]
Undergraduates	291[3]
Postgraduates	244[3]
Endowment	£274.4 million (2020)[4]
Website	merton.ox.ac.uk
Boat club	Boat Club
Map
Location in Oxford city centre

Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.^[5] Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.^[6]

By 1274, when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century. Mob Quad, one of Merton's quadrangles, was constructed between 1288 and 1378, and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford,^[7] while Merton College Library, located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world.^[8]

Like many of Oxford's colleges, Merton admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after over seven centuries as an institution for men only.^[9] Merton's second female warden, Irene Tracey, was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2022,^[10] and Professor Jennifer Payne was subsequently elected as acting warden in 2022^[11] and as warden in 2023.^[2]

Alumni and academics past and present include five Nobel laureates, the writer J. R. R. Tolkien, who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959, and Liz Truss, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in September and October 2022.^[12] Merton is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford and held funds totalling £298 million as of July 2020.^[13]