Charterhouse (a corruption of Chartreuse, 'Carthusian') is the name of a famous hospital and school which occupied a joint-building in Charterhouse Square, London, till 1872, when the school was transferred to Godalming in Surrey. The Charterhouse was instituted in 1611 by Thomas Sutton, of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire. The site had been occupied by a Carthusian monastery (founded in 1371), but on the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. it was made a place of deposit for his nets and pavilions. After undergoing many alterations, and passing into the possession of various distinguished persons, it was finally purchased from Lord Suffolk for £13,000 by Thomas Sutton, who endowed it with the revenues of upwards of twenty manors, lordships, and other estates in various parts of England. This 'master-piece of Protestant English charity,' as old Fuller calls it, serves three uses—it is an asylum for poor brethren, an educational and a religious institution; hence Bacon terms it a 'triple good.' The poor brethren are eighty in number. None are admitted under fifty years of age, and only those who have been householders are eligible. Each brother has a separate apartment, a share of attendance from domestics, an ample though plain diet, and an allowance of about £36 a year for clothes and other matters, and four weeks' holiday every autumn. The brethren must be bachelors and members of the Church of England. Among the poor brethren in bygone years were Dryden's antagonist, Elkanah Settle; John Bagford, antiquary; Isaac de Groot, a descendant of Grotius; Alexander Macbean, who assisted Johnson in his Dictionary; John Grey, electrician; and—one could not omit him—'Colonel Newcome.'
There are thirty junior scholarships, worth £75 a year, open to all boys between twelve and fourteen years of age by public competition on conditions settled in accordance with the direction of the Public Schools Act (1868), the old system of direct nomination by the governors having been wholly abolished. There are also thirty senior scholarships, of £95 value, for boys of between fourteen and fifteen who have been at least a twelvemonth in the school; and five annual exhibitions of £80 for four years for boys leaving school. In addition to the scholars a large number of boys are sent to the Charterhouse because of its reputation. These either board with the masters or attend simply during the day. The number of extra boarders is now about 460. The institution is under the direction of the Queen, fifteen governors, and the master himself, whose salary from the foundation is £800 per annum. The hospital has now a separate governing body. Among the eminent persons educated in this establishment have been Isaac Barrow, Sir William (Judge) Blackstone, Addison, Steele, John Wesley, Bishop Thirlwall, George Grote, Thackeray, John Leech, and Sir Charles Eastlake. The new school at Godalming, designed by Hardwick, forms a large quadrangle, with a gatehouse tower 130 feet high, and a chapel rich in stained glass. The old school premises were sold to the Merchant Taylors' School, which is now installed here in handsome new school buildings erected in 1870-72. The quaint Charterhouse hospital and chapel still remain on the old site. The chapel contains Sutton's tomb. See works by Dr Haig Brown (1879), Eardly-Wilmot and Streatfield (1894), and A. H. Tod (1900).