Thomas Charnock

Thomas Charnock (* 1524, 1525 or 1526, Faversham , Kent ; † 1581 ) was an English alchemist .

Charnock is one of the Elizabethan alchemists most known about (alongside John Dee ).

The year of birth comes from one of his manuscripts dated 1574, in which he writes that he is 50 years old. According to his own account, he traveled all over England before settling in Oxford . There he met a spiritualist named James S., who lived in Salisbury , died in 1554 and made him his student. From him he had the secret of the Philosopher's Stone , but his apparatus burned in 1555. Further alchemical work was interrupted because he took part in the war of the English against the King of France Henry II (relief of Calais , which then fell back to the French ). A judge of the peace who was hostile to him saw to it that he was called up. In frustration, he smashed his devices with an ax. He didn't come back from the war until seven years later.

His interest in alchemy probably arose when he inherited the alchemical library of his uncle Thomas Charnock, the confessor of Henry VII , Dominican monk of the Blackfriars in London and also an alchemist. According to his own statements, Charnock was a scholar, but without training ( unlettered scholar ).

In 1562 he married Agnes Norden, with whom he had two children, and settled in Stockland-Bristol in Somersetshire and then in the village of Combwich on the Steart peninsula. There he had an alchemical laboratory, which he ran until his death in 1581. He is buried in Otterhampton Church near Bridgwater .

Charnock was of the opinion that one would have to live in solitude in order to pursue his lifelong search for the philosopher's stone. The neighbors in his village distrusted him and he once turned to Queen Elizabeth I with the request to continue his alchemical studies in the solitude of the tower . The request was unsuccessful because Queen Elizabeth already employed several alchemists (in Somerset House). He was of the opinion that Roger Bacon , who was considered the founder of alchemy in England, would have been unsuccessful in the search for the philosopher's stone because he had crossed the line to the occult in a pact with the devil.

He wrote an imaginative alchemical book in Old English verse, The Breviary of Natural Philosophy (1557), partly autobiographical, which was included in the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652). The editor Elias Ashmole , who was specifically looking for information about him, also included further fragments of him (Aenigma ad Alchimiam, 1572). He left notebooks. One of his books was dedicated to Elizabeth I (1565) long believed to be lost, but was found in the British Library (it was previously owned by William Cecil, Lord Burghley). In addition to Ashmole, other antiquarians researched him and there were short biographies of Thomas Fuller (1662, Worthies of England), John Aubrey and Anthony Wood (1692). Some of the information came from a clergyman (Paschall) who also rummaged through the house in the village of Combwich in the 1680s and found manuscripts.

literature

F. Sherwood Taylor: Thomas Charnock, Ambix, Vol. 2, 1946, pp. 148-176
F. Sherwood Taylor: The Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry , New York 1949
Eric John Holmyard : Alchemy , London 1957
Allan Pritchard: Thomas Charnock's Book Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, Ambix, Volume 26, 1979, pp. 56-73
Jonathan Hughes: The humanity of Thomas Charnock, an Elizabethan Alchemist , in: Stanton J. Linden (Ed.): Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture , New York: AMS Press 2007
Robert M. Schuler: Charnock, Thomas (1524x6–1581), alchemist , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Online, 2004

Web links

Agnes Mary Clerke, Thomas Charnock , Dictionary of National Biography

Individual evidence

↑ Thomas Pritchard, Ambix, 26, 1979, p. 58, dates of birth there according to Paschall, Ashmole 1524 or 1526. According to the Dictionary of National Biography , he was born on the Isle of Thanet . According to the online edition of the DNB from 2004, according to Charnock's own information, three years can be considered, 1524, 1525 and 1526.

personal data
SURNAME	Charnock, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH	1524 or 1525 or 1526
PLACE OF BIRTH	Faversham
DATE OF DEATH	1581

[1] Thomas Pritchard, Ambix, 26, 1979, p. 58, dates of birth there according to Paschall, Ashmole 1524 or 1526. According to the Dictionary of National Biography , he was born on the Isle of Thanet . According to the online edition of the DNB from 2004, according to Charnock's own information, three years can be considered, 1524, 1525 and 1526.