Charterhouse School

General information

Charterhouse is an independent day and boarding school in Godalming, Surrey. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London, it educates over 800 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years, and is one of the original seven English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868 (which derived from the Clarendon Commission of 1864). Today pupils are still referred to as Carthusians, and ex-pupils as Old Carthusians.A private sector school, Charterhouse charges full boarders up to £36,774 per annum (2016/17) and is amongst the most expensive Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) schools in the UK. It has educated one British Prime Minister and has a long list of notable alumni.HistoryIn May 1611, the London Charterhouse came into the hands of Thomas Sutton (1532–1611) of Knaith, Lincolnshire. He acquired a fortune by the discovery of coal on two estates which he had leased near Newcastle-on-Tyne, and afterwards, removing to London, he carried on a commercial career. In 1611, the year of his death, he endowed a hospital on the site of the Charterhouse, calling it the hospital of King James, and in his will he bequeathed moneys to maintain a chapel, hospital (almshouse) and school. He died on 12 December and subsequently the will was hotly contested but upheld in court, and the foundation was finally constituted to afford a home for eighty male pensioners (gentlemen by descent and in poverty, soldiers that have borne arms by sea or land, merchants decayed by piracy or shipwreck, or servants in household to the King or Queens Majesty), and to educate forty boys.