The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

commitment to act as the captain of the men of Ely. Medley again evidently enjoyed
Cecil‘s special protection as Lord North quickly consented. 174
In October 1588 Cecil pressured the Dean of Ely to renew Medley‘s lucrative lease
on Wentworth manor ―for three lives, wherof he hathe two in being‖. 175 These were not
three successive lives or generations—rather Medley would be able to choose three living
people and the lease would expire upon the death of the last person. The Dean of Ely
replied that although Medley was ―your Lords servant‖, he had already taken advantage of
his position with Cecil four or five years previously, extending his other leases belonging to
the church to three lives. So disadvantageous had the arrangement proved for the church
that they altered their charter, prohibiting leases longer than twenty-one years. The Dean
and Prebendaries of Ely pleaded with Cecil that, as their patron, he would not require them
to break with this limit. 176 When John Strype described the incident, the eighteenth century
historian acknowledged the reputation of Medley, whom he had left imprisoned for debt in
his earlier book, as a ―famous chymist, and retainer to that lord[Cecil]‖. 177
The strongest demonstration of Cecil‘s continued favour towards Medley came in
May 1594, when Medley became keeper of the Catholic recusant Priests and Jesuits in
Wisbech Castle, ahead of the nominees of Lord North. 178 The exact circumstances of his
appointment are not clear, as the Privy Council records for that year have been lost.
According to William Weston, an imprisoned Catholic at Wisbech, their first keeper,
Thomas Grey, was
removed from the scene by a most ghastly death, and in his place we had
another man who was anxious to be considered a gentleman. He claimed
to have served for a time in the household of the Treasurer, William Cecil,
174 Roger North to Cecil, 25 June 1588, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 57, No. 43.
175 The Dean and Prebendaries of Ely to Cecil, 29 October 1588, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 58, No. 4.
176 Ibid.
177 Strype, Annals of the Reformation, Vol. 3, p. 72.
178 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 8 May 1594, Hatfield House, The Cecil Papers, M485/6; The Privy
Council to Roger North, 26 October 1592 in John Roche Dasent (ed.), APC, Volume 23: A.D. 1592, London,
1901, p. 263.
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