History of the Foundation

Statutes were first granted to the College in 1506. By modern standards these were extremely durable, surviving unchanged until 1860. Indeed, the oath which Fellows swore on admission precluded attempts to seek revocation or change to the statutes, though it did not seek to prohibit the grant of additional, supplementary statutes.

University reforms in the second half of the 19th century led to the establishment of University Commissioners, who drafted new statutes for the College in 1860. A further revision occurred in 1882; this version was the first to use English as primary language. Since that time, there has been a fairly continuous process of revision, usually through a stream of minor changes but occasionally by a complete restatement. Change has been for the most part promoted by the College, though a few alterations reflect changes in national education policy promoted by the Government of the day.

The current version - a complete redraft of the College's statutes, on the College's initiative - was approved by her Majesty in Council on 4 March 1976. This version is law for almost all purposes, though some Fellows still have vested rights under older versions. At the time of writing, the 1976 text has been changed on 8 occasions, the latest being in November 2008. These changes are incorporated into the text here.