Robert plot
Robert Plot (born December 13, 1640 in Borden , Kent , England , † April 30, 1696 in Sutton Barne , Borden), also Robert Plott , was an English naturalist, professor of chemistry at Oxford University and the first curator of the Ashmolean Museum .
Live and act
Robert Plot was the son of the same name Robert Plot of Sutton Baron (or Barne) and his wife Rebecca, who was a daughter of Thomas Platenden (or Pedenden) of Borden. He was born in 1640. and attended Free School in Wye, Kent. Plot studied at Magdalen Hall in Oxford; he received the BA in 1661, the MA in 1664 and the BCL and the DCL in 1671.
Best known as a curiosity researcher, he wrote a natural history of Oxfordshire and a natural history of Staffordshire . In December 1677 he became a member of the Royal Society for his research on minerals ; from 1682 to 1684 he was its secretary and from 1682 co-editor of the Philosophical Transactions of this society. His Natural History of Oxfordshire (1677) contains the first known illustrations of dinosaur bones, which he believed to be the bones of a giant.
Plot was First Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1683 to 1690 . From 1683 he was professor of chemistry at Oxford University. In 1687 he became secretary to the Earl Marshal, Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk; in the same year he became Registrar of the Court of Chivalry . In 1688 he became Historiographer Royal , in 1694 Mowbray Herald Extraordinary .
In the field of chemistry, he researched a universal solvent that he wanted to make from alcohol and believed that medicine was dependent on alchemy . From 1686 he turned to archeology , but interpreted finds from Roman times as of Saxon origin. He was mainly interested in the extraordinary; He researched the properties of the air on the basis of echoes , examined mineral water sources and recognized the stratification of layers of the earth. He explained finds of fossil shells and other fossils as accidental accumulations of mineral crystals , and he believed that springs can also be fed with seawater through underground channels.
Plot married Rebecca, Henry Burton's widow and daughter of Ralph Sherwood, a London grocer. He died of concretions on April 30, 1696 and was buried at Borden Church.
Works (selection)
- The natural history of Oxford-shire. Being an essay towards the Natural History of England. Oxford 1677, doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.23488 (digitized, Biodiversity Heritage Library)
- The natural history of Stafford-shire. Oxford 1686, digitized version ( GoogleBooks), HTML version (Early English Books)
- De Origine Fontium, Tentamen Philosophicum. In praelectione habita coram Societate Philosophica nuper Oxonii instituta ad Scientiam naturalem doctorate. , Sheldon, Oxford, 1685
swell
- Entry to plot; Robert (1640-1696) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
Individual evidence
- ^ The entry with the Royal Society says "before 13 December 1640".
- ^ Oxford Geology Group, Notable Local Geologists
Web links
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Plot, Robert |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Plott, Robert |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English naturalist and university professor |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 13, 1640 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Borden , Kent , England |
DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 1696 |
Place of death | Sutton Barne , Borden , Kent , England |