Thomas Plume

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Thomas Plume (* 1630 in Maldon ; † November 20, 1704 ) was an English clergyman , philanthropist and founder of the library named after him.

Life

The family settled at Yeldon Hall in Essex . Plume was baptized as Thomas, son of Thomas and Hellen Plume, on August 7 or 18, 1630 in All Saints Church in Maldon. Plume was educated in Chelmsford , Essex and Christ's College , Cambridge. He completed his studies with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Doctor of Divinity (DD).

In 1658 he was appointed vicar in East Greenwich , Kent and remained so for 46 years. During the Stuart Restoration in 1660, Plume was vicar in Greenwich. He signed the Act of Uniformity in 1662 even though his father was a well-known Presbyterian . In 1662 he was appointed rector of Merston, Sussex , and in 1665 rector of Little Easton, Essex. In 1679 he became Archdeacon of Rochester, Kent. He remained unmarried. He was buried in Longsfield, Kent.

He was the first chairman of the John Roan School in Greenwich.

Plume Library

The tower of St Peter's Church, Maldon, where the library is housed.

Although he devoted most of his life to the Church, he was open to intellectual development in other academic fields as well. He collected books indicating an interest in chemistry , astronomy , medicine , history, and travel .

Among other things, his collection includes:

Although he lived in Greenwich most of the time, he bequeathed his collection of approximately 8,100 books and prints printed between 1487 and 1658 to his hometown of Maldon. The books are kept there in a building that Plume had built for this purpose on the remains of St Peter's Church. The library was for the service of the ministers and the clergy in the neighboring parishes. Any gentleman or scholar could borrow a book if they promised to return it. After his death, the library grew through contributions from other donors.

Nowadays the books can no longer be borrowed. In 1989 it was found that 723 books were missing from the original bequest.

Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy

In 1704, Plume endowed the chair of the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in order to “build an observatory and maintain a hard-working and learned professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy and to give him and his successors utensils, quadrants, telescopes, etc. to buy."

legacy

Plume was unmarried and left a large fortune, which was mainly used for charitable purposes. Amounts of £ 1,000, £ 700 and £ 202 12s . 6 d . he used to establish a professorship in Cambridge. He bequeathed the money to William Covell, Master of Christ’s ; Richard Bentley , Master of Trinity ; Francis Thompson , of Caius and William Whiston , Lucasian professor , to "build an observatory and maintain a professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy and build or buy a house nearby."

literature

  • HR French: Plume, Thomas (bap. 1630, d. 1704), Church of England clergyman and educational benefactor . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . University Press, Oxford 2004, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 22395 (restricted access).
  • EA Fitch: Thomas Plume, DD In: Chelmsfordian. John Dutton, 1898.
  • Ian Linton: The Book of Maldon. Barracuda Books Ltd., Buckingham 1986, ISBN 0-86023-185-2 .

Web links

Wikisource: Thomas Plume  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alison Rowlands: What did Thomas Plume think about witchcraft? Reconstructing the intellectual outlook of a little-known 17th-century English skeptic. In: Essex Society for Archeology & History . tape 2 , 2011, p. 196 ( thomasplumeslibrary.co.uk ).
  2. ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  3. ↑ Plume or Plumme, Thomas . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 3 : Kaile-Ryves . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1924, pp. 372 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ The Friends of Thomas Plume's Library
personal data
SURNAME Plume, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman, philanthropist and founder of the library named after him
DATE OF BIRTH 1630
PLACE OF BIRTH Maldon
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1704