Born in
London on 11 August 1820, the son of Richard Charnock, a
barrister of the
Inner Temple. His parents were cousins, and perhaps because of this, one of his siblings was "very weak"; another, who was disabled, became a skilled
woodworker. His oldest sister was born around 1818. Charnock attended
King's College London, Charnock later inspired characters in Meredith's novel
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), especially "Hippias Feverel, the dyspeptic wine-bibber and author of scholarly treatises". Meredith's friend Lionel Robinson described Charnock to
Edward Clodd as "a 'character', a real antiquarian of doubtful morals and for many years one of the 'old boys' of the
Arundel Club of
Bohemian ways and days. Meredith put him (much disguised) into
Richard Feverel as the uncle", In 1870 he was admitted as a member of
Gray's Inn,), and by 1875 had become the president of the breakaway
London Anthropological Society. He was a fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries,
Philological Society,
Royal Asiatic Society, and
Royal Geographical Society, a member of the
Royal Nordic Society of Antiquaries, corresponding member of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society, honorary member of the
Society of Anthropology of Paris, and was awarded a
Doctor of Philosophy degree by the
University of Göttingen. He ceased practicing as solicitor in 1879. He also contributed to a number of publications. Charnock was a reader for the
Oxford English Dictionary, where he was credited with 1,200 quotations. He edited the London Anthropological Society's journal
Anthropologia (1874–1876), and wrote papers for
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute, and the
Transactions of the Philological Society. Charnock wrote articles for Meredith's
Monthly Observer magazine under the name Aretched Kooseg (). He contributed to
Notes and Queries for almost half a century, from at least 1856 to 1902. Charnock had been unwell for several years before his death on 2 March 1905, and his obituary described him as living "a lonely life in the obscure lodging in which he died. ... He passed away peacefully, unnoticed and unknown, in the house in which he had lodged for some years, No. 30, Millman Street, attended to by strangers. For their long attention he has left them a handsome legacy, and relatives and friends are not forgotten among the numerous legacies he left, his property being about 10,000
l. in value. Notwithstanding his legal education, in his desire to be generous, the legacies in his will are for a larger amount than he had to give, though he frequently made fresh wills, the last being dated in 1898." ==Assessment of etymological work==