Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHARTER-HOUSE

CHARTER-HOUSE, an extra-parochial place in Holburn district, London; near Aldersgate Street and Smithfield, ¾ of a mile N of St. Paul's. It includes a square and gardens; comprises 10 acres; and extends slightly into the extra-parochial liberty of Glasshouseyard. It was purchased, in 1349, by Bishop Stratford, to be a burial-place for victims of the plague; became the site, in 1371, of a Carthusian priory, founded by Sir Walter Manny; passed, in 1537, to the Crown; and was purchased, in 1611, for £81,217, by Thomas Sutton, to be made the place of a public school. The buildings are partly ancient, partly modern; form seven courts, of collegiate appearance; and include an ancient pointed gateway and a great Tudor hall; the latter erected by the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Suffolk. The school has an income of about £28,000; is governed by the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the two Archbishops, the Bishop of London, and twelve elected noblemen and gentlemen; consists of 44 scholars on the foundation, and usually from 120 to 130 "externs;" and numbers among its famous pupils Bishops Monk and Thirlwall, Judge Blackstone, Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, Dr. Barrow, Addison, Steele, John Wesley, Grote, the Earl of Liverpool, Sir Charles Eastlake, Thackeray, and Genoral Havelock.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "an extra-parochial place"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: London AncC
Place: Charter House

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