Wadham College was founded in 1610 in the reign of King James I by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham. Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Somerset family, died in 1609 leaving his fortune to endow a college at Oxford.
The College was founded for men only. In 1974 the statutes were altered to allow the admission of women as full members at all levels; Wadham was one of the first Oxford Colleges to make this change. The college now consists of some 55 Fellows, about 200 graduate students, and about 450 undergraduates