The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Robert Cecil with his alchemical abilities, sending him ―a poore present as either [Medley‘s]
weake race affordes or the foggie climate gives life unto‖ as a demonstration of his
―carefull endeavours‖. 187 Medley‘s wife Anne died in 1595, and in 1597 Medley turned to
Robert Cecil to write a letter encouraging Jane Boughton, a wealthy widow, to marry
him. 188 However, Robert Cecil was a very different man from his father. Much more
sceptical about alchemy and alchemists, Medley‘s particular expertise would not have held
so great an appeal.
The Privy Council became increasingly dissatisfied with Medley‘s management of
Wisbech prison and its recusant prisoners. The number of escapes had increased, and a
number of the prisoners were so ill they had to be removed. 189 Sir Nicholas Bacon, William
Cecil‘s nephew-in-law and constable of Wisbech Castle, pressured Medley over issues
surrounding governance and lodgings. 190 Medley consented in late 1597 to Bacon‘s retainer
William Brewster becoming joint keeper of the recusants, provided that the Cecils,
―without whom I yield to nothing‖, approved of the measure. 191 Medley‘s grief over ―that
most lamentable dispersion‖ of Cecil‘s followers after the Lord Treasurer‘s death in August
1598 would have been genuine. 192 He realised just how tied his fortunes were to that of his
great patron. Medley cannot have sufficiently ingratiated himself with Robert Cecil, as by
October 1598 Brewster was the sole keeper at Wisbech. 193 Robert Cecil seems to have
ignored Medley‘s further pleas for employment. 194 Finally in late 1600 Medley was once
187 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 8 May 1594, Hatfield House, The Cecil Papers, M485/6.
188 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 17 February 1597, TNA, SP12/267/42; William Medley to Sir Robert
Cecil, 20 May 1597 in R. A. Roberts (ed.), CMS. Vol. 7: 1597, London, 1899, p 206; Clifford A. Thurley and
Dorothea Thurley (eds.), Index of the Probate Records of the Court of the Archdeacon of Ely 1513-1857, London, 1976,
p. 127.
189 The Privy Council to Sir John Higham, 20 September 1597, Dasent (ed.), APC, Volume 28: 1597, London,
1904, p. 6.
190 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 1 August 1597 in Roberts (ed.), CMS, Vol. 7, p. 330.
191 Ibid.
192 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 3 November 1598 in Roberts (ed.), CMS, Vol. 8, p. 421.
193 Privy Council to William Brewster in 15 October 1598, John Roche Dasent (ed.), APC, Volume 29: A.D.
1598-1599, London, 1905, p. 228.
194 William Medley to Robert Cecil, 12 December 1598 in Roberts (ed.), CMS, Vol. 8, p. 492.
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