The original buildings in London Wall were on a site previously occupied by Elsing Spital, a hospital for the blind founded in 1329, and earlier still by a nunnery.
They comprised the almshouses, a hall and chapel, and the library added to the foundation by John Simson, rector of St Olave Hart Street, one of White's executors.
[3] In the 1640s Sion College was regarded as a stronghold of the London presbyterians, their "de facto headquarters", and it took on a collective role from around 1645.
[4] The administration of the College fell into the hands of the parliamentarian side during 1643, as John Sedgwick of St Alphage London Wall took on the royalists President James Marsh, archdeacon of Chichester, and Edward Sparke.
William Jenkyn also attacked Goodwin (The Busie Bishop, or the Visitor Visited, and The Blind Guide, or Doling Doctor, 1648).
A governing body appointed by the members to administer the foundation includes a president, two deans and four assistants.