Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Thomas Charnock

3407544Men of Kent and Kentishmen — Thomas CharnockJohn Hutchinson


Thomas Charnock,

ALCHEMIST,

Was born, according to his own statement, in the Isle of Thanet in the year 1524. He speaks of himself ("truly enough," as Fuller somewhat spitefully remarks) as the "unlettered scholar." Like many other "philosophers" of the time, he devoted himself to the vain task of the discovery of the "philosopher's stone" He published the result of his researches in a work entitled "The Breviary of Natural Philosophy," which is included in the "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum " of Elias Ashmole, published in 1651. He died in 1581.

[See "Fuller's Worthies."]