The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

country, it is told me, knoweth the earth and the workings of it‖. 132 Sir John Perrot had
supposedly even gathered enough information on the process to write a discourse on its
workings. 133 Despite these pressures, sometime during 1575 Medley took the time to
illustrate to Cecil their common education, penning ‗A Brief Discourse of Rhetoric‘. 134
Smith turned to Cecil to compel his kinsman to make good his alchemical
promises. 135 He was confident that if Medley would devote himself to the project in
earnest, they would know within a month ―what proportion of charge is to the proportion
of gain; and what hope we may conceive‖ of profits. 136 Smith suggested that Cecil send
either William Humfrey, or Humfrey Cole, the premier Elizabethan instrument maker, to
assist Medley with the full scale works. 137 However, after this we hear no more of the
Anglesey works. Perhaps Medley delayed further, or perhaps the works were not
economical or practical on an industrial scale. Those historians who credit the work with
any legitimacy accept Sir John Wynne‘s assumption that as ―the work would not quitte
coste‖ it was abandoned by its patrons. 138 Almost one hundred years later, Thomas Fuller
argued that not enough patience was shown by those involved. As the project ―was
founded on rational probability (which I have cause to believe)‖, Fuller went so far as to
suggest another trial for the project. 139
The failure of a quick return for Leicester and his supporters, who had invested so
heavily in the Anglesey works, spelled trouble for Medley. Having strongly supported the
project, Leicester, fearful of losing face and not known for his patience with failure, moved
against the troublesome alchemist. On 1 September 1576 the Sheriffs of London arrested
132 Smith to Cecil, Lansdowne Vol. 29, No. 61.
133 Ibid.
134 Medley, ‗A Brief Discourse of Rhetoric‘, Cecil Papers, M485/6.
135 Thomas Smith to Cecil, 8 March 1575, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 29, No. 61.
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid.
138 Sir John Wynne to Lord Eure, 1602, in Walter Davies, General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of
North Wales, London, 1810, pp 484-486, William Rees, Industry before the Industrial Revolution, Vol. 2, Cardiff,
1968, p. 450.
139 Thomas Fuller, Worthies of Wales, London, 1662, p. 20.
142