The 32 acres of the land where the college is located was bought by Rev. James Emlyn, a missionary from Newcastle UK of the London Missionary Society. Rev. Robert Sinclair, who succeeded him in 1910, built a bungalow and started a Boarding School.

After independence, the Kanniyakumari Diocese of the Church of South India took into consideration the long-felt need for a College at Marthandam and decided to begin a Christian college.  The Executive Committee of the Diocese, which met on 04-01-1964, entrusted the responsibility of raising funds for the buildings to an ad-hoc committee consisting of Mr. N. Dennis, Ex. MP(Convener), Mr.G.A. Ambrose, Mr.J. Nesamony, Mr.P.S. Wilson and Rev. M.Amos. The Diocese set apart the 32 acres as an endowment to fulfil the University requirement. The public, in and around Marthandam, the parents, students and members of the teaching and non-teaching staff took a keen interest in the growth of the College and contributed substantially at different stages in its development.

The Pre- University Class (PUC), with the permission of the Madras University, was started in 1964 with 13 teaching staff members and 171 students. The College was inaugurated on 6th August 1964 by the then Bishop Rt. Rev. I.R.H. Gnanadason with Dr. John D.K. Sundar Singh as the first Principal. Initially, the College was started as a men’s College and it became a Co-Educational institution in the year 1977. The College introduced undergraduate courses with Mathematics, History and Economics as major subjects in the year 1965. In 1966, the college was affiliated with Madurai University which was later renamed Madurai Kamaraj University. The College became a Post Graduate Institution in the year 1980-81 with the introduction of M.Sc. in Physics. A Ph.D. Research Centre in History was started in the year 1997 in the regular scheme. The College now offers 20 U.G., 15 P.G, 12 M.Phil., 12 Ph.D. & 11 Certificate Courses.  Currently, the college has about 4050 students,187 teaching, 93 non-teaching staff members and a chaplain.

The College was affiliated with Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli in 1991, God has guided and blessed the college tremendously. With faith in the divine, guidance and co-operation from the public, the College will continue to shine as a fruitful centre of learning.

The College was renamed as Nesamony Memorial Christian College in recognition of the yeoman services rendered by the late Thiru. A. Nesamony, B.A.,B.L.,M.P. to the Kanniyakumari Diocese of the Church of South India in1984.

The College was accredited with 'A' Grade awarded by the NAAC for the period 2014-2019.

This Institution has been striving hard to achieve its goal. A number of innovative programmes and projects are being carried out in this college to lift the downtrodden people of this area.