page_title: Thomas Henshaw (alchemist)
section_title: Continental travel
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Henshaw (alchemist) / Continental travel
caption_attribution_description: English: Views in Italy, dedication to Thomas Henshaw.
context_page_description: Thomas Henshaw was an English lawyer, courtier, diplomat and scientific writer. While not a published alchemist, he was a significant figure in English alchemical work from the 1650s onwards; he is known to have used the pen-name "Halophilus".
context_section_description: Henshaw was allowed to leave England, on giving security not to join the king's army again, and sailed to Holland. He took part in a campaign under William II, Prince of Orange; and then entered the French army, in which he became major, and at some point served under Sir Robert Moray. He subsequently travelled through Spain, and on to Italy, where he lived at Rome, Venice and Padua. He spent a period from late 1644 as the travelling companion of John Evelyn, whom he had encountered at Pisa. They visited Athanasius Kircher's showy rooms in Rome together. When Evelyn moved on to Venice, Henshaw spent time accompanying the young Henry Howard. Evelyn, Henshaw and Francis Bramston were then together at Padua for a period.
  At the end of the 1640s Henshaw left to return to England. He left Paris, where he had been staying, and came back in 1650; or earlier, before the king's execution in January 1649.
caption: Etching by John Evelyn, dedicated to Henshaw, from their Italian travels.
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