Jesus College

Jesus College, college of the University of Cambridge, England. Jesus College was founded in 1496 by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, on the site of an old Benedictine nunnery suppressed for the purpose: initially incorporated as “The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge”, it later acquired the name of the old nunnery's Jesus chapel. Jesus College now admits undergraduate and graduate students of both sexes. The head of the college is known as the Master. The earliest college buildings are survivals of the original Benedictine nunnery; later buildings include work by Augustus Welby Pugin and William Morris. Notable alumni of Jesus College include Thomas Cranmer, Fulke Greville, John Flamsteed, David Hartley, Thomas Robert Malthus, Laurence Sterne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and David Hare.