Up a Tree

Sir Armagil Waad, possibly Sharon's 11th great grandfather may not have been the "Columbus of England," as we looked at last week, but he was a key participant in a curious incident in which a man who identified himself as an alchemist may well have been trying to run a con on Queen Elizabeth I. I would venture to say that most people associate alchemy with the idea of turning lead into gold, and that will be a key part of this story. But perhaps you're like me and don't know that alchemy goes beyond the idea of turning base metals -- the metals we use and rely on most of the time, such as copper, lead, nickel, tin, iron -- into precious metals. In those days that would mean primarily gold and silver.  And you might think that alchemy was a pre-enlightenment fascination mostly centered in Europe. But alchemy has its roots in ancient Egypt, where not surprisingly it was associated religion. From there alchemy spread throughout the world as other nations arouse and

Today we switch back to Sharon's side of the family to look at an ancestor whose son called him the "English Columbus," probably an inflated claim. Still it's nice to know an offspring would want to apparently try to make a spot in history for his father. And he provides a nice jumping off point into history. Sir Armagil William Wade, or Waad as he appears in historical documents was born in 1511 in Kilnsey, a small village in North Yorkshire, England, not too far from Scotland by modern standards. He is Sharon's 11th great grandfather.  Sir Armagil would have a distinguished career in government, serving during the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Mary. Much of what we know about him seems to come from his entry in The History of Parliament,   a multivolume work that covers most of the period from the late 14th century through the early 19th century. A gap appears from 1421-1509.  Someone had posted Sir Armagil's bio on the Family Search site, and as I scoured