22 Facts About Edward Kelley

Sir Edward Kelley or Kelly, known as Edward Talbot, was an English Renaissance occultist and scryer.

Edward Kelley is known for working with John Dee in his magical investigations.

Besides the professed ability to see spirits or angels in a "shew-stone" or mirror, which John Dee so valued, Kelley said that he possessed the secret of transmuting base metals into gold, a goal of alchemy, as well as the philosopher's stone itself.

Edward Kelley said he was descended from the family of Ui Maine in Ireland.

Edward Kelley's sister Elizabeth was born in 1558, and he had a brother Thomas who later joined him in Dee's household.

Edward Kelley usually wore a cap on his head, and it was thought this was to hide his lack of ears.

Edward Kelley professed the ability to do so, and impressed Dee with his first trial.

Dee and Edward Kelley devoted huge amounts of time and energy to these "spiritual conferences".

From 1582 to 1589, Edward Kelley's life was closely tied to Dee's.

Edward Kelley married a widow, Jane Cooper of Chipping Norton.

Edward Kelley helped educate her two children: the girl, future poet Westonia, later described him as a 'kind stepfather' and noted how he took her in after the deaths of her two grandmothers.

Edward Kelley had hired a Latin tutor for her, named John Hammond.

About a year after entering into Dee's service, Edward Kelley appeared with an alchemical book and a quantity of a red powder which, Edward Kelley said, he and a certain John Blokley had been led to by a "spiritual creature" at Northwick Hill.

Edward Kelley reportedly demonstrated its power a few times over the years, including in Bohemia where he and Dee resided for many years.

Dee and Edward Kelley lived a nomadic life in Central Europe, meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences.

Edward Kelley's supposed value was as a medium, as only he was able to understand and scribe their language.

In 1587, possibly as an act to sever the sessions, Edward Kelley revealed to Dee that the angels had ordered them to share everything they had, including their wives.

In England in 1588 rumours circulated that Edward Kelley was arrested by the Emperor for falsely advertising that he could transmute base metals to gold, a skill that Queen Elizabeth could employ.

Edward Kelley had served the king's grandfather, the Earl of Lennox.

Edward Kelley said that Angelical was dictated by angels who he saw and heard by means scrying in a crystal ball or mirror.

Edward Kelley described the angels as communicating by means of tapping out letters displayed in a rectangular tablet.

The English translations were not tapped out but, according to Edward Kelley, appeared on little strips of paper coming out of the angels' mouths.