On 24 April 1324, the Rector of the University Church, Adam de Brome, obtained a licence from King Edward II to found a "certain college of scholars studying various disciplines in honour of the Virgin" and to endow it to the value of £30 a year. Brome bought two properties in 1324, Tackley's Hall, on the south side of the High Street, and Perilous Hall, on the north side of Broad Street, and as an investment, he also purchased the advowson of a church in Aberford.