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Thomas Chaloner (courtier)
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Thomas Chaloner (courtier)
Sir Thomas Chaloner (1559 – 17 November 1615) was an English courtier and Governor of the Courtly College for the household of Prince Henry, son of James I. He was also responsible for introducing alum manufacturing to England. He was member of parliament for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel in 1604. His third son was the Regicide Parliamentarian Thomas Chaloner. He is sometimes confused with his cousin Thomas Chaloner, a naturalist who prospected for alum.
Chaloner was the illegitimate son of statesman and poet Sir Thomas Chaloner, and Ethelreda Frodsham; his father died in 1565, and his mother then married Edward Brocket (son of Sir John Brocket, knt., of Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire). He owed his education mainly to his father's friend, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, at St Paul's School, London and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was noted for his poetical abilities, but took no degree.
In 1579, Chaloner wrote the dedication to Lord Burghley of his father's poetical works. He began his travels in 1580, and became, especially in Italy, intimate with the learned men of the time. He returned home three years after to become a favourite at court, and married Elizabeth, daughter of his father's friend, William Fleetwood, then Recorder of London. Her sister married Sir David Foulis, 1st Baronet.
He was M.P. for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel in 1604. In 1588, he taught, at Christ Church, Oxford, Robert Dudley, son of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and was knighted while serving with the English army in France in 1591. In 1592, Chaloner was made justice of the peace for Buckinghamshire. In 1596–7 he was again abroad, and his letters, chiefly from Florence, to the Earl of Essex and Anthony Bacon are in the Lambeth Library.
After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, in 1540, the lands of Gisborough Priory were given to Thomas's father. At the end of the 16th century, Chaloner travelled to Italy and visited the alum works in the Papal States. Alum was a very important product at that time, used internationally, in curing leather, fixing dyed cloths and for medicinal uses. Up to this period the Vatican, and Spain, two countries in conflict with England, had maintained virtual monopolies on the production and sale of the product.
A cousin of his, also named Thomas Chaloner (son of John Chaloner, Irish Secretary of State), prospected for copper and alum in Ireland, and in 1584 published A Short Discourse of the most rare Vertue of Nitre (Gerald Dewes, London), a practical work in advance of the age. Having a great interest in the study of plants, he recognised that certain plants grew wherever the minerals responsible for the formation of alum were present in the soil. From this he recognised that the rock from which the alum was made was similar to that abundant in several areas in and around his cousin's Guisborough estate, in present day Redcar and Cleveland. In 1606 and 1607, Thomas went into partnership with David Foulis and with Lord Sheffield and John Bourchier, obtaining a monopoly for 31 years of manufacture in northern England.
In time an industry developed, but the tradition that Chaloner secretly brought some of the Pope's workmen to England for this purpose may be unfounded. Once the alum industry around Whitby had taken root, the English Crown imposed its own monopoly – imports from abroad were banned. Although the methods were laborious, England became self-sufficient in alum. In James I's time Chaloner's works suffered from acute unprofitability, frequent changes of management and claims of corrupt dealing. The king prohibited the importation of foreign alum. Under Charles I the crown claimed them as royal mines, and they were granted to Sir Paul Pindar for £12,500 a year to the king and £2,240 to Edmund, Earl of Mulgrave and another, and after paying eight hundred workmen still produced an immense profit.
Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, at the instance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, Chaloner went into Scotland, where he became so great a favourite with King James VI of Scotland that even Sir Francis Bacon sought his recommendation. He wrote to Chancellor Egerton that he was with James VI eight days before the death of Elizabeth I, advising on the government to be established at the Union of the Crowns when she died.
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Thomas Chaloner (courtier)
Sir Thomas Chaloner (1559 – 17 November 1615) was an English courtier and Governor of the Courtly College for the household of Prince Henry, son of James I. He was also responsible for introducing alum manufacturing to England. He was member of parliament for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel in 1604. His third son was the Regicide Parliamentarian Thomas Chaloner. He is sometimes confused with his cousin Thomas Chaloner, a naturalist who prospected for alum.
Chaloner was the illegitimate son of statesman and poet Sir Thomas Chaloner, and Ethelreda Frodsham; his father died in 1565, and his mother then married Edward Brocket (son of Sir John Brocket, knt., of Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire). He owed his education mainly to his father's friend, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, at St Paul's School, London and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was noted for his poetical abilities, but took no degree.
In 1579, Chaloner wrote the dedication to Lord Burghley of his father's poetical works. He began his travels in 1580, and became, especially in Italy, intimate with the learned men of the time. He returned home three years after to become a favourite at court, and married Elizabeth, daughter of his father's friend, William Fleetwood, then Recorder of London. Her sister married Sir David Foulis, 1st Baronet.
He was M.P. for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel in 1604. In 1588, he taught, at Christ Church, Oxford, Robert Dudley, son of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and was knighted while serving with the English army in France in 1591. In 1592, Chaloner was made justice of the peace for Buckinghamshire. In 1596–7 he was again abroad, and his letters, chiefly from Florence, to the Earl of Essex and Anthony Bacon are in the Lambeth Library.
After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, in 1540, the lands of Gisborough Priory were given to Thomas's father. At the end of the 16th century, Chaloner travelled to Italy and visited the alum works in the Papal States. Alum was a very important product at that time, used internationally, in curing leather, fixing dyed cloths and for medicinal uses. Up to this period the Vatican, and Spain, two countries in conflict with England, had maintained virtual monopolies on the production and sale of the product.
A cousin of his, also named Thomas Chaloner (son of John Chaloner, Irish Secretary of State), prospected for copper and alum in Ireland, and in 1584 published A Short Discourse of the most rare Vertue of Nitre (Gerald Dewes, London), a practical work in advance of the age. Having a great interest in the study of plants, he recognised that certain plants grew wherever the minerals responsible for the formation of alum were present in the soil. From this he recognised that the rock from which the alum was made was similar to that abundant in several areas in and around his cousin's Guisborough estate, in present day Redcar and Cleveland. In 1606 and 1607, Thomas went into partnership with David Foulis and with Lord Sheffield and John Bourchier, obtaining a monopoly for 31 years of manufacture in northern England.
In time an industry developed, but the tradition that Chaloner secretly brought some of the Pope's workmen to England for this purpose may be unfounded. Once the alum industry around Whitby had taken root, the English Crown imposed its own monopoly – imports from abroad were banned. Although the methods were laborious, England became self-sufficient in alum. In James I's time Chaloner's works suffered from acute unprofitability, frequent changes of management and claims of corrupt dealing. The king prohibited the importation of foreign alum. Under Charles I the crown claimed them as royal mines, and they were granted to Sir Paul Pindar for £12,500 a year to the king and £2,240 to Edmund, Earl of Mulgrave and another, and after paying eight hundred workmen still produced an immense profit.
Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, at the instance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, Chaloner went into Scotland, where he became so great a favourite with King James VI of Scotland that even Sir Francis Bacon sought his recommendation. He wrote to Chancellor Egerton that he was with James VI eight days before the death of Elizabeth I, advising on the government to be established at the Union of the Crowns when she died.