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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Social Background of Treasure Hunters

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We have already referred to the treasure hunt in Westminster Abbey. The organizer and initiator of this venture was Davey Ramsey, the clock- maker of King James I and his successor. Some of his works are now in the British Museum. Ramsey had some financial difficulties but he was well-connected at court. We mentioned in Chapter 6 that he managed to receive royal permits to search for treasure in 1628 and in 1635. Nothing seems to have come of these enterprises. In the winter of 1632/33, he received a permit from the Dean of Westminster to search for treasure in the cloister of the abbey. Ramsey did not undertake the hunt alone. He mustered the support of William Lilly, the renowned London astrologer and magician. Ramsey also employed a certain John Scott, who was supposed to have some experience in handling a divining rod. Scott had lodgings in Pudding Lane. He was said to have once been a pageboy to an aristocrat but he seemed to have lost all connections to the upper strata of society. The party that actually met to search for treasure in the cloisters was considerably larger: Ramsey, Lilly and Scott had brought several labourers to do the digging for them but they had also been joined by a number of courtiers who had come out of curiosity.