Charlotte D'Evelyn was born on May 23, 1889 in San Francisco, California to Frederick William D'Evelyn and Susan Taylor D'Evelyn. She received a B.L. from Mills College in 1911 and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1917. As a graduate student she was awarded a grant fellowship to study in Oxford, England. Upon her graduation she began teaching English literature at Mount Holyoke College with a focus on Middle English and Chaucer. She became a full professor in in 1932 and was chair of the English Department from 1939-1945. She edited many medieval texts and wrote a variety of articles and papers. She continued her research in medieval texts after her retirement in 1954. She died at the age of eighty-eight on December 18, 1977 in Central Falls, Rhode Island.