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Further reading: occultism not mentioned in article

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{{Short description|English alchemist}}
{{for|the English politician|Thomas Charnock (MP)}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
[[Image:Cornelis Pietersz. Bega - De Alchemist.jpg|thumb|225px|''The Alchemist'', by [[Cornelis Pieterszoon Bega]]]]

'''Thomas Charnock''' (1524/1526–1581) was an English [[Alchemy|alchemist]] and who devoted his life to the quest for the [[Philosopher's Stone]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |first=Rosemary Ellen |last=Guiley |title=The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy |place=New York |year=2006 |pages=56}}</ref> His unpublished notebooks are useful, not just for an understanding of [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] attitudes towards alchemy in general, but for the insight they give to Charnock's life and thoughts.

==Early life==
Charnock was born in [[Faversham]], Kent in c.1524.<ref name=":0" /> A native of the [[Isle of Thanet]], Charnock spent most of his life in [[Combwich]], a small village on the [[Steart Peninsula]], near [[Bridgwater]] in the west of England. Charnock's uncle, also called Thomas Charnock, had been an alchemist, as well as the [[confessor]] to [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] and his interest in the subject appears to have been stimulated when he inherited his uncle's alchemical library while in his teens.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Pritchard |first=A. |year=1979 |title=Thomas Charnock's book dedicated to Queen Elizabeth |journal=Ambix |volume=26 |pages=56–73|doi=10.1179/amb.1979.26.1.56 }}</ref>

==Career==
Charnock began searching for alchemical secrets throughout England in his early twenties.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=F.S. |date=1938–1946 |title=Thomas Charnock |journal=Ambix |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=148–76|doi=10.1179/000269846790133129 }}</ref> He eventually found two masters who instructed him in the art: 'Master I.S.', a priest from Salisbury; and the former abbot of Bath.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |editor-first=E. |editor-last=Ashmole |title=Theatrum chemicum Brittannicum |place=London |year=1652 |pages=298–9}}</ref> His work was tiresome and demanding, requiring him, amongst other things, to keep a fire burning at a constant temperature. He was also pursued by constant bad luck: on New Year's Day 1555, Charnock's tabernacle caught fire and destroyed his progress; inept servants continually spoiled his renewed efforts by mismanaging the fire heating his alchemical vessels; and two years later in 1557 he was conscripted when England [[Italian War of 1551–1559|went to war with France]] and the local Justice of the Peace (who seems to have been a personal enemy) made sure that Thomas was forced into military service.<ref name=":2" /> In frustration at being conscripted, Charnock smashed his vessels.

Troubled by his continual bad luck, and ostracised by his neighbours who were fearful of his experiments, Charnock vainly asked [[Elizabeth I]] to allow him to carry on his experiments in the [[Tower of London]], or another "solitary place."<ref name=":1" /> He pledged to give Elizabeth the wealth and health of the [[Philosopher's stone|philosophers' stone]] within fourteen years if she would subsidise his costs, promising that he made this offer "uppon payne off losing my hedd."<ref name=":1" />

==Personal life==
Charnock married Agnes Norden in 1562 at Stockland-Bristol, near [[Bridgwater|Bridgewater]], Somersetshire.{{sfn|Clerke|1887}} They had at least two children: Absolon who was buried in Stockland in 1563, and Bridget who married in Stockland in 1587.

Charnock died in April 1581 at [[Combwich]]. He was buried in Otterhampton Church, near Bridgwater.{{sfn|Clerke|1887}} After his death, it was reported that no-one would live in his former cottage, which was "troublesome and haunted by spirits and that its owner had a reputation as a troublesome person and a conjurer."<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=A. |title=Brief lives, chiefly of contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey, between the years 1669 and 1696 |year=1898 |pages=165}}</ref>

==Works==
The following works attributed to Charnock were printed in [[Elias Ashmole]]'s ''[[Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum]]''

*''Breviary of Philosophy''. 1557. An autobiographical account of Charnock's alchemistic experiences<ref>{{cite book |first=H. Stanley |last=Redgrove |title=Alchemy, Ancient and Modern |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=1992 |pages=6}}</ref>
*''Aenigma ad Alchimiam''. 1572.
*''Aenigma de Alchimiae''. 1572.
*''Fragments coppied From Thomas Charnock's owne hand writing.'' 1574.

==References==
{{reflist}}
;Attribution
{{DNB|wstitle=Charnock, Thomas |first=Agnes Mary |last=Clerke|volume=10}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite magazine |first=Jonathan |last=Hughes |title=Base Matter into Gold |date=August 2005 |magazine=[[History Today]]}}
*{{cite book |first=Jonathan |last=Hughes |chapter=The World of Thomas Charnock, an Elizabethan Alchemist |title=Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture |editor-first=Stanton J. |editor-last=Linden |publisher=AMS Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-404-62342-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=John |title=Men of Kent and Kentishmen |date=1892 |publisher=Cross & Jackman |location=Canterbury |page=33 |edition=Subscription |chapter=[[s:Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Thomas Charnock|Thomas Charnock]]}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Charnock, Thomas}}
[[Category:16th-century births]]
[[Category:1581 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century alchemists]]
[[Category:16th-century English scientists]]
[[Category:English alchemists]]

Thomas Charnock - Revision history

imported>Skyerise: /* Further reading */ occultism not mentioned in article