Charnock, Thomas (15261581)
English alchemist born in the Isle of Thanet, Kent. As a
young man Charnock traveled all over England in search of alchemistic
knowledge, but eventually he fixed his residence at
Oxford, and there he made the acquaintance of a noted scientist.
The scientist was impressed with the youths cleverness and
appointed him his confidant and assistant. After working in this
capacity for a number of years, Charnock found himself the
sole legatee of his patrons paraphernalia and likewise of the
various secrets written in his notebooks.
Armed with this knowledge, he proceeded to devote himself
more eagerly than ever to the quest of gold production, but in
1555, just as he imagined himself on the verge of triumph,
there was a sudden explosion in his laboratory.
In 1557, when he again thought that success was imminent,
the press-gang arrived at his house to recruit him by force into
the English army to fight the French. The alchemist was bitterly
chagrined on being kidnaped in this way; he set about to destroy
all his equipments so no one would lay claim to his secrets.
He subsequently proceeded to France as a soldier and took
part in the disastrous campaign that culminated in the English
being defeated at Calais by the Duc de Guise.
How Charnock fared during the expedition is not known,
but he returned to England safely, and in 1562 he married
Agnes Norton. Thereafter, he settled at Stockland, in the county
of Somerset, and continued to pursue scientific researches.
Neither the military nor the church disturbed his pursuits from
that point forward.
The antiquarian and historian Anthony Wood, in his Athen
Oxoniensis, credited Charnock with a considerable amount of
writing, and it is possible that several items enumerated are in
reality from some other pen than the alchemists. However,
there are certain books he undoubtedly wrote, notably Aenigma
ad Alchimiam (1572) and Breviary of Natural Philosophy (1557).
Breviary was subsequently reprinted in the Theatrum Chemicum
of Elias Ashmole.
