My mother,
Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When she does praise me, grieves me.
Shak.
5. (Com.) The letting or hiring a vessel by special contract, or the contract or instrument whereby a vessel is hired or let; as, a ship is offered for sale or charter. See Charter party, below.
Charter land (O. Eng. Law), land held by charter, or in socage; bookland. -- Charter member, one of the original members of a society or corporation, esp. one named in a charter, or taking part in the first proceedings under it. -- Charter party [F. chartre partie, or charte partie, a divided charter; from the practice of cutting the instrument of contract in two, and giving one part to each of the contractors] (Com.), a mercantile lease of a vessel; a specific contract by which the owners of a vessel let the entire vessel, or some principal part of the vessel, to another person, to be used by the latter in transportation for his own account, either under their charge or his. -- People's Charter (Eng. Hist.), the document which embodied the demands made by the Chartists, so called, upon the English government in 1838.
Char"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Chartered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Chartering.] 1. To establish by charter.