Education
Born in Wamphray, Dumfriesshire, Charteris studied at the University of Edinburgh.
Born in Wamphray, Dumfriesshire, Charteris studied at the University of Edinburgh.
He is credited as being the father of the Woman"s Guild. He was a parish minister in Galloway and then Glasgow. In 1868 he became Professor of Biblical Criticism at the University of Edinburgh, until his retirement due to ill health in 1898.
He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1892.
He was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary in Scotland to King Edward VII in October 1901. Charteris was a conservative Biblical scholar, and a mild Calvinist.
In April 1875, he was accused of writing an anonymous review in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of William Robertson Smith"s article on the Bible in the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, it was perhaps as a Churchman that Charteris exercised his greatest influence.
He was instrumental in initiating the Church"s Committee of Christian and Work in 1869.
He founded the magazine and Work in 1879, and began the Young Men"s Guild and the Woman"s Guild. He also was a leading proponent of the restoration of the office of Deaconess within the Church. In 1900-1901 he is listed as living in Cameron House on Dalkeith Road (part of Pollock Halls of Residence).