Cornelius de Vos - Knowledge

255: 27: 328:. In this version, a young Cornelius persuaded his friend the painter Nicholas Hilliard to join his Scottish goldmining venture. Hilliard sent his associate, Arnold Bronckhorst, a painter and mineralogist, into Scotland. Hilliard's efforts and influence secured a patent for Cornelius de Vos, (perhaps meaning a letter of recommendation from Elizabeth to Morton). Atkinson then describes Cornelius de Vos exporting gold ore for assay. Arnold Bronckhorst was intended to be the agent for selling the gold to Scottish mint in Edinburgh but failed to secure a contract. He was, however, appointed to be the royal portrait painter. 308:

Cornelius de Vos and his partners raised capital and he was given a commission by Regent Moray, (in March 1568). Atkinson says that Cornelius had 120 men at work and employed men and women, "lads and lasses, idle men and women", who had been begging before. Most of the gold was bought by the Scottish

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on 4 March 1568 to register his exclusive contract to work all the gold and silver mines in Scotland. He was obliged to start work before June 1569. If any lead, tin, or copper was found he was to extract it and pay the profits to the Scottish crown. For every hundred ounces of native gold or silver

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Bronckhorst was officially appointed as royal painter in Scotland in 1581, a few years after the goldmining events Atkinson described. However, portraits made during the years of Morton's regency have been attributed to him. Several of the individuals named by Atkinson appear in the record. Abraham

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in April 1576. James Reid, who Atkinson identified as a partner of Cornelius de Vos, stood security with James Skathowie of the Canongate for the £500 loan from Regent Morton in 1575. Cornelius never repaid this loan, and after Morton was executed in 1581, Reid and Skathowie's heirs were liable to

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wrote a kind of historical prospectus for gold mining in Scotland. This includes the story of "Master Cornelius" or "Cornelius Devosse". Atkinson described Cornelius Devosse as "a most cunning picture maker, and excellent in art for the trial of mineral and mineral stones", although the archival

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in alarmist terms about "secret practices with merchant strangers and by some foreign princes to have of the Scottish queen (Mary, Queen of Scots) the mines in Crawford Moor nigh adjoining to your majesty's west borders", mines he hoped to work himself. Thurland was in a partnership with a German

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with an English and a Scottish partner (whose names are unknown). He brought a sample of sand in a napkin from the Scottish gold fields, found by a woman worker washing for gold, a "mayde of Scotlande". The German miners at Keswick tested the sample and told him the sand was rich in gold. The

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Atkinson's narrative seems in part based on hearsay but he describes using a "book of record" of Cornelius de Vos' mining operation at Crawford Moor and a record of the works of George Bowes. This seems to have been an account of wages. Atkinson says that he himself had worked with Daniel

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in August 1574 with a message for William Cecil about the mines, presumably seeking investment and sponsorship. On 7 February 1575 Morton lent £500 to Cornelius de Vos and his three German or "Almain" partners, Abraham Peterson, Johnne Kelliner, and Helias Clutene.

212:, who had witnessed the 1568 contract. He described the terms of his contract as "captious and doubtful in many points and nothing to the king's profit". Soon after, the mining concession was granted to one of de Vos' partners Abraham Peterson in February 1576. 160:

The Company of Mines Royal tried to get an interest in Scottish gold mining and panning from Mary, Queen of Scots. Meanwhile, Cornelius de Vos and his business partners, two London merchants Anthony Hickman and John Achillay, gained a permit to work salt at

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he was to pay eight ounces to the treasury, and four ounces for any metal that needed to be refined. He set up his own joint-stock company to recover the gold. Cornelius however still lacked knowledge of chemistry and mineralogy and, as reported by

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in London on 11 December 1586, who was perhaps this mining entrepreneur. The name "Clewtinge" seems to be the surname of Helias Clutene, the partner of Cornelius in 1575. Mine entrepreneurs in Scotland of the next generation included

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Peterson, the partner and successor of Cornelius de Vos, was a Dutch or Flemish metal worker or artist, as well as a mining entrepreneur, who worked in the Scottish mint and designed coins for Regent Morton, including

317:, (and sometimes said to be the same person as Abraham Peterson). Regent Morton had a basin made of Wanlockhead gold and presented it to the king of France, apparently to advertise Scotland's mineral wealth. 320:

Atkinson takes up the subject of Cornelius de Vos again, as a story from the reign of Elizabeth, "some forty years past", after describing his own recent personal involvement with Scottish gold,

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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

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In 1558 Cornelius de Vos was in London, and married Helen, the widow of a butcher, Nicholas Howe, and John Gylmyne. He was recorded as a member of the French church in Farringdon in 1568.

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In London his relationship with Margriete van der Eertbrugghe came into scrutiny by the Dutch Church in October 1570. In 1573 he is known to have written letters to the Mayor of London,

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In 1580, although he had lost his political power, Morton received gold which was coined to the value of £678, possibly connected with mining. The goldmining concession was given to

226:, and others via his cousin Arnold. As he is linked with the painter Arnold van Bronckorst in Stephen Atkinson's story, it has been suggested that this Arnold was the same person. 254: 196:

was unhappy with the contract. In June 1574 Morton went to Crawford Moor in person to see the workings and set miners to work. Cornelius de Vos approached the English ambassador

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Hechstetter, the miner who Cornelius de Vos had consulted at Keswick. He wrote that Nicholas Hilliard, then still alive, would confirm that he also lost money in the venture.

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and alum in England on the Isle of Wight and in Devon by letters patent in 1564, and pursued mining concessions in Ireland. According to his rival for Irish mining rights,

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mint for coins. The mines were apparently worked by sub-contractors. Atkinson mentions a Scottish workman John Gibson of Crawford town who worked at "Glengaber Water" (

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record of his activity shows that he lacked lapidary or chemical knowledge and no other source mentions him as portrait painter. According to Atkinson, the painter

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had granted a concession to three Edinburgh burgesses, James Carmichael the warden of the mint, Master James Lyndsay, and Andrew Stevenson, while the mint-master

26: 293:, was given permission to prospect and found rich ore, which describes the events of October 1566. He gives the names of four partners in the enterprise; the 427: 426:(London, 1856), pp. 253 (TNA SP12/36/162, which binds Cornelius and co-contractor to respect mineral rights granted to Thomas Thurland and 313:), who he claims to have met, and another Dutch miner, Abraham Grey, who he found in the records. Grey, known as "Grey Beard", worked at 858:

Contract to Cornelius de Vos and partners to make salt, signed by Mary, Queen of Scots and her husband James Hepburn, Duke of Orkney

298: 189:, again had to send one of his workers, a Dutch miner called Rennius, to Daniel Hechstetter at Keswick to assay samples of sand. 302: 166: 31: 342: 325: 145: 85: 882: 270: 887: 403: 109: 235: 197: 117: 862: 877: 239: 181: 321: 144:, noted this as suspicious activity, possibly against his or Company interests, and reported it to 693: 542:(Sandstone Press, 2022): Edinburgh City Archives, muniments box 7, bundle 15: See external links. 441:

Elizabethan Monopolies: The History of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works from 1565 to 1604

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Amy Blakeway, 'James VI and the Earl of Morton', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid,

305:, Abraham Peterson a Dutch man residing in Edinburgh, and James Reid an Edinburgh burgess. 282:. The historian Elizabeth Goldring dates Hilliard's involvement to the years 1573 or 1574. 121: 113: 857: 8: 209: 162: 58: 392:

Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Elizabeth 1558-1572

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Atkinson states that Cornelius de Vos went into Scotland with a recommendation from

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Elizabethan Keswick: Extracts from the Accounts of the German Miners at Augsburg

430:), 254 (TNA SP12/40/180, Cornelius a "devyser" in a suite for mines in Ireland). 223: 89: 410:, 1 (London, 1882), p. 293: E. Wyndham Hulme, "History of the Patent System", 871: 294: 258: 249: 216: 205: 193: 333: 243: 177: 169:

shortly after their marriage in May 1567. These salt works were revived by

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This article is about the 16th-century miner. For the Flemish painter, see

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The Register Book of the Parish of St. Nichols Acons, London: 1539-1812

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Scottish Glass Industry 1610-1750: To Serve the Whole Nation with Glass

508:(Baltimore, 2004), p. 45, quotations from TNA SP12/40/175 (modernised). 310: 176:

De Vos was awarded a traditional 19 year "tack" of the gold mines by

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BBC News: Mary Queen of Scots documents found at Museum of Edinburgh

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Hilliard and Oliver: The Lives and Works of Two Great Miniaturists

136: 50: 765:(Edinburgh, 1878), p. xvi: See also a paper on Scottish gold in 337: 540:

Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots

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