Henry Charteris (c1565–1628)

Henry Charteris was the second Principal of Edinburgh University, serving from 1599 to 1620.

The son of an eminent Edinburgh printer, Charteris was one of Robert Rollock's original class of students upon the opening of Edinburgh University in 1583. He laureated in 1587, and is the twelfth signatory for his class in Edinburgh University's Laureation Album. He returned to the university as a regent in 1589. Charteris was appointed Principal and Professor of Theology on the advice of his predecessor, Robert Rollock, who recommended Charteris on his deathbed.

The University's historians Thomas Craufurd and Sir Alexander Grant argue that Charteris was too modest and retiring for the Town Council's taste, and suggest that a plot was hatched to replaced him with Patrick Sands. A pretext was found when Charteris requested that his salary be raised to the same level as the City's Ministers, as had, in fact, been promised him. The Town Council replied that the present state of University funds did not permit it, and insinuated that he might be wise to accept a call to the ministry elsewhere. Charteris took the hint, resigned the Principalship in 1620, and became Minister of North Leith.

The resignation of Charteris led to the separation of the offices of Principal and Professor of Theology. Charteris was succeeded by Patrick Sands as Principal, and by Andrew Ramsay as Professor of Divinity. The posts had originally been united in the person of Robert Rollock in November 1587. When Ramsay resigned in 1626, Charteris was invited to return as Professor of Divinity, a post he held until his death in 1629.

Charteris's greatest legacy may be an affectionate memoir of his predecessor and mentor: De vita et morte Roberti Rollok, printed by the Ballantyne Club in 1826. Edinburgh University Library's collections also includes Latin verses by Charteris to Rollock's Memory in a manuscript of Rollock's Commentarius in primam beati Apostoli Petri Epistolam (ca. 1627).

Sources

• Thomas Craufurd, History of the University of Edinburgh, from 1580 to 1646: To Which is Prefixed the Charter Granted to the College by James VI of Scotland, in 1582 (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Neill & Co., 1808)
• Sir Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)