a) 1840 - 1901

Letters for the period 1840-1900 were gathered together in about 1900 and parcelled, for the period 1840-89 in ten-year bundles, and for 1890-8 in annual bundles. The contents of these bundles were as follows.

1840-49 One bundle of correspondence

1850-89 Each parcel contained a bundle of correspondence and a number of loose papers forming two parallel series. It is no longer clear why there should have been this separation but they have been listed separately.

1890-98 Each annual parcel contained one or two bundles of letters. There were bundles for 1890, 1891, 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896. Labelled "Letters" and the year in red. Unlabelled bundles for 1892, 1897 and 1898 seem to belong to this series. There is a second series labelled "Correspondence" and the year in black for 1896, 1897 and 1898. Again it is not clear why there were two series.

1898-1901 One final and rather specialised bundle. The letters were variously addressed to the successive masters: Rev. T. Dikes, 1833-47, Rev. G. M. Carrick, 1847-9, Rev.J. H. Bromby, 1847-68, Rev.H. W. Kemp, 1868-88, Rev. J. T. Lewis, 1890-98, the solicitors to the Charity Messrs. Thompson and Marshall, later Thompson and Cook, later Thompson, Cook and Babington, their agents and surveyors and to the advisors Committee as a body through named members of it. For brevity the Master and solicitors are mentioned in the following list by title not name. The agents and surveyors named in the following list were Thomas Nicholson, L. B. Earnshaw and R. G. Smith.

The documents have been listed in the order in which they appear in the bundles.

b) 1901 to date

Under the scheme of 1901 the work of routine administration was transferred from the master to the Town Clerk as clerk to the Trustees. Subsequent correspondence is therefore his.

These letters are chiefly concerned with the routine business. This includes the selection, appointment and discipline of inmates, the appointment and remuneration of masters and the administration of property. A point mentioned several times in the 1928-30 letters is the decline of Silver St. as a shopping centre and the effects of this on Charterhouse Tenants' business. The correspondence for the 1940's is much concerned with the war, especially the bomb damage at the Charterhouse and the evacuation of the inmates, and later the post war reconstruction.