CHARTERHOUSE (a corruption of Fr. ('hartreuse). The name applied in England to Carthusian monasteries. The first was founded at Witham, on the borders of Selwood Forest. in 117S. by Icing Henry 11., in fulfillment of a vow made On the oecasion of his memorable penance at the tomb of Saint Thomas of Canterbury. The SI Toni] was at Milton ill Somersetshrre (1222) ; the third at Beauvale. Nottinghamshire (1343); the fourth, and most famous, to wide], the name is restricted in general usage, was situated in London. It was endowed by the will of Michael de Northburgh. Bishop of London. 1355431, and the monks took possession of it in 1371. Its history is not of much general interest until the reign of Ifeury1 I MI when anti the following years a number of the monks suf fered death for refusing to acknowledge the rural supremacy in spiritual matters, the prior. .Tohn Houghton, being the first, martyr for the old faith under the Reformation. The monastery was dissolved in 1538. The house passed through various hands, returning to the Crown under _Mary by the attainder of the Duke of North umberland. and under Elizabeth by that of the Duke of Norfolk. The latter's son, the Earl of Suffolk, sold it in 1611 for £13,000 to Sir Thomas Sutton, whose coal lands in Durham had made him one of the richest Englishmen of his day. Ile richly endowed it as a hospital or almshouse for poor old men and a free grammar school, "to feed, clothe, and educate a certain number of poor boys. who without such assist ance would be likely to go untaught." The 'poor
brethren' were SO in number, none being admitted under 50 years of age; they must, be bachelors and members of the Church of England. Each bad a separate apartment, a share of attendance from domestics, and ample, though plain, diet, and an allowance of about £26 a year for clothes and pocket money. This part of the institution is best known by the famous description of it given in The Newcomes by Thackeray, who was himself educated at Charterhouse. The school was not long limited to the forty foundation scholars, and grew until at the present time it ranks among the great public schools of Eng land. Among the eminent men who have been educated here are Blackstone, Addison, Steele. John Wesley, and George Grote. In 1872, the old location amid crowded streets being thought un healthy, the school removed to Godalming in Surrey, 30 miles from London. The old premises were sold to the Merchant Taylors' School, which is now installed here in handsome new school buildings erected in 1875. The quaint old hos pital and chapel, the latter containing Sutton's tomb, still remain. Consult: Hendricks, The London Cha•terhouse (London, 1889) ; Haig Brown, Chartcrhouse, Past and Present (Godal ming, 1879) ; Eardley-Wilmot and Streatfield, charterhonsc, Old and New (London, 1894) ; Tod, I 'hurtrrhouse (London, 1900) ; Doreau, Henri 1111. et les martyrs de la Chartreuse de Londres ( Paris, ISO] ) .