Thomas Thurland was Master of the

Savoy Hospital The Savoy Palace, considered the grandest nobleman's townhouse of medieval London, was the residence of prince John of Gaunt until it was destroyed during rioting in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The palace was on the site of an estate given to ...

in London and a mining entrepreneur. His family was from Nottinghamshire. Newlands valley from Dale Head

Partnerships and mines

In 1564,

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

granted Thurland and Sebastian Spydell, and then Thurland and a German partner Daniel Hochstetter a patent to mine and refine gold, copper, silver, and mercury (quicksilver), in England and Wales. Hochstetter was an associate of an Augsburg partnership, David Haug and Hans Langnauer. They were allowed 24 partners or investors. This arrangement was dissolved in 1577. The copper mines at Keswick were at first a success. The mines were located at

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

in the parish of Crosthwaite in

Allerdale Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The Bor ...

. Thurland, known as the Provost of the Mines, wrote to William Cecil, a shareholder, about the successes, sending plans of the works and smelting house, and mentioning that Daniel Hechstetter had to buy more timber to prop up the workings at Newlands because the seam was so large. Some of the timber was brought from Ireland. In October 1566, Thurland was approached at Keswick by a Dutch prospector

Cornelius de Vos Cornelius de Vos or de Vois or Devosse ( fl. 1565-1585), was a Dutch or Flemish mine entrepreneur and mineral prospector working in England and Scotland. He was said to have been a "picture-maker" or portrait artist. De Vos is known for gold minin ...

who brought a sample of gold ore from Scotland. Cornelius was a shareholder in the Company of Mines Royal, but Thurland was not pleased by this development and reported the find to the Company of Mines Royal. Thurland wrote to Queen Elizabeth in alarmist terms about "secret practices with merchant strangers and by some foreign princes to have of the Scottish queen (

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

) the mines in Crawford Moor nigh adjoining to your majesty's west borders", mines he hoped to work himself. Stephen Atkinson, who later wrote about gold mines in Scotland, claimed to have worked with Thurland's partner Daniel Hochstetter. Atkinson said that Hochstetter had told him of injuries suffered by

George Bowes Sir George Bowes (21 August 1701 – 17 September 1760) was an English coal proprietor and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 33 years from 1727 to 1760. George Bowes was baptized on 4 September 1701, the youngest son of Sir ...

(or his brother Robert Bowes) in an accident in a Cumbrian copper mine.

Challenges

The Earl of Northumberland disputed their right to the copper and sent men to occupy the works in October 1569. Arguments were made that copper, a base metal, was not usually reserved to the crown. The courts decided that the monarch possessed the mineral rights and Thurland and Hechstetter's patent was valid. Despite Thurland's upbeat reports, the venture proved financially unsuccessful, due to high costs and low copper prices. The German and English workers quarrelled. Thurland's ideas of discipline did not create respect. One German mine manager, Hans Loner, wrote that Daniel Hochstetter had insisted on using older methods and technology. Thurland was dismissed from the Savoy Hospital in 1570 for misappropriating funds and property to pay his personal debts. Mining work in the Newlands and Keswick continued, managed by a local landowner Richard Dudley of Yanwath, and from 1581 some technological improvements were trialled by

Joachim Gans Joachim Gans (other spellings: Jeochim, Jochim, Gaunz, Ganse, Gaunse) was a Bohemian mining expert, renowned for being the first Jew in North America.Grassl, Gary C. ''Joachim Ganz of Prague: The First Jew in English America.'' Biography Early l ...

from Prague. He used methods outlined by

Lazarus Ercker Lazarus Ercker (c. 1530 – 1594) was a Bohemian metallurgist and assay master of a mint near Prague who wrote some of the earliest known treatises on metallurgy entitled ''Beschreibung allerfürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt und Berckwercksarten'' ...

.Israel Abrahams & Cecil Roth, ''Jewish Life In The Middle Ages'' (repr. Routledge, 2005), pp. 245-6.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thurland, Thomas 16th-century English people British prospectors Copper mines in England