The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

certainly the practical expert, who Smith insisted, ―in the hand work is one of the best that
I have seen‖. 91
According to both Medley and Smith the demonstrations were extremely
successful. However, the high price of vitriol, a European import, made the process
economically unfeasible. Medley, perhaps pushing his chemical skills a step too far,
claimed that with the right ores, water and fuel he could create the vitriol needed to make
his method economical. 92 Seven weeks spent experimenting at Winchelsey, where plenty of
wood was available for fuel, convinced Medley that while the creation of vitriol was indeed
possible, a location with better ‗earths‘ to make acid was needed. 93
Cecil, Smith and Gilbert, now clearly convinced that Medley could make ―nature
ripe by art in the earthe‖, a common euphemism for alchemy, arranged for a full scale
demonstration of Medley‘s alchemical process at the more suitable location of Poole,
Dorset, where Lord Mountjoy had begun manufacturing copperas (ferrous sulphate) and
alum (hydrated aluminium potassium sulphate). 94 Gilbert and Cecil arranged a lease of one
of Mountjoy‘s copperas ‗houses‘ for Medley to work in. However, Medley discovered his
name had been left off the lease of the Poole ‗house‘, and refused to work until this was
rectified, delaying the work until September. Medley then learned that their patent for the
process had been stayed by the Queen, and halted the work once more, ―for fear my Lorde
Montjoy [would] get knowledge of the secrettes therof which to do he & his fryndes go
veray inderecttly aboutt‖. 95 Without the protection of a patent for his copper process
Medley began making copperas and alum in an attempt to cover his expenses. 96 This
would have appealed to Cecil‘s long term goal of limiting imports from Catholic Europe,
for the Papacy monopolised the alum trade.
91 Thomas Smith to Cecil, 8 February 1572, TNA, SP70/146 f.20r.
92 Thomas Smith to Cecil and Leicester, 15 December 1574, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 19, No. 45.
93 Ibid.
94 William Medley to Cecil, 19 April 1572, TNA, SP12/86/14.
95 Ibid.
96 Ibid.
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