m. to the village
of Sutanati, a place well chosen for the purpose of defence, which
occupied the site of what is now Calcutta. It was only, however, at the
third attempt that Charnock finally settled down at this spot, and the
selection of the future capital of India was entirely due to his
stubborn resolution. He was a silent morose man, not popular among his
contemporaries, but "always a faithfull Man to the Company." He is said
to have married a Hindu widow.

CHARNOCK (or CHERNOCK), ROBERT (c.1663-1696), English conspirator,
belonged to a Warwickshire family, and was educated at Magdalen College,
Oxford, becoming a fellow of his college and a Roman Catholic priest.
When in 1687 the dispute arose between James II. and the fellows of
Magdalen over the election of a president Charnock favoured the first
royal nominee, Anthony Farmer, and also the succeeding one, Samuel
Parker, bishop of Oxford. Almost alone among the fellows he was not
driven out in November 1687, and he became dean and then vice-president
of the college under the new regime, but was expelled in October 1688.
Residing at the court of the Stuarts in France, or conspiring in
England, Charnock and Sir George Barclay appear to have arranged the
details of the unsuccessful attempt to kill William III. near Turnham
Green in February 1696, Barclay escaped, but Charnock was arrested, was
tried and found guilty, and was hanged on the 18th of March 1696.

CHARNOCKITE, a series of foliated igneous rocks of wide distribution and
great importance in India, Ceylon, Madagascar and Africa. The name was
given by Dr T.H. Holland from the fact that the tombstone of Job
Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, is made of a block of this rock. The
charnockite series includes rocks of many different types, some being
acid and rich in quartz and microcline, others basic and full of
pyroxene and olivine, while there are also intermediate varieties
corresponding mineralogically to norites, quartz-norites and diorites. A
special feature, recurring in many members of the group, is the presence
of strongly pleochroic, reddish or green hypersthene. Many of the
minerals of these rocks are "schillerized," as they contain minute platy
or rod-shaped enclosures, disposed parallel to certain crystallographic
planes or axes. The reflection of light from the surfaces of these
enclosures gives the minerals often a peculiar appearance, e.g. the
quartz is blue and opalescent, the fels