Sion College London N/A

Sion College was founded by Thomas White, son of John White `a clothier' of Bristol. He entered Magdalen Hall in Oxford in 1566, took holy orders and “became a noted and frequent preacher of God's Word” according to Wood's Athenæ. He moved to London, where he served as Rector of St Gregory by St Paul's, and afterwards Vicar of St Dunstan in the West. In 1588 he became a Prebend at St Paul's, Treasurer of Salisbury in 1590, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford in 1591 and of St George's Windsor in 1593. By his will he left £3,000 for the purchase of premises “fit to make a college for a corporation of all the ministers, parsons, vicars, lecturers, and curates within London and suburbs thereof; as also for a convenient house or place fast by, to make a convenient almshouse for twenty persons, viz. ten men and ten women”.