Dr Thomas Plume, born in Maldon in Essex in 1630, is remembered
today for the many bequests he left which established important
scientific, religious and cultural charities. Still operational
today are the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy at Cambridge
University, the Plume Library at Maldon and the Plume Trust for
poor clergy in the Diocese of Rochester. This volume provides the
first comprehensive account of the life, work and philanthropy of
Plume. Educated at Chelmsford Grammar School and Christ's College,
Cambridge, Plume was vicar of Greenwich from 1658 and archdeacon of
Rochester from 1679, holding both posts until his death in 1704. At
Greenwich he was noted favourably for his preaching by Samuel Pepys
and John Evelyn on more than one occasion. He died a wealthy man
and his will contained 79 bequests. Plume's famous library at
Maldon still houses some 8000 books and pamphlets as well as his
pictures and manuscripts. The book collection, forming one of the
largest private libraries of the period, is an important resource
for understanding the Enlightenment, whilst the manuscript
collection reveals Plume's intellectual roots in the religious,
philosophical and political debates of the mid-seventeenth century.
The landmark building itself, a partly converted and rebuilt
medieval church, is an important example of a
late-seventeenth-century purpose-built library. As vicar of
Greenwich, archdeacon of Rochester and prebendary of Rochester
cathedral, Plume had equally strong links with Kent, owning an
estate at Stone Castle, Dartford. In Cambridge the chair he endowed
for 'a learned and studious Professor of Astronomy and Experimental
Phylosophy' has been held by many notable scientists including Fred
Hoyle and Martin Rees. In contextualising Plume's bequests within
the intellectual world of the late seventeenth century, the book
reveals the connections between his philanthropy and his family
background and education, his wealth, career and patrons, his
churchmanship and his character. Having lived in a significant
period of religious tumult and intellectual debate, Plume's legacy
is both to have influenced the accretion of knowledge for over
three hundred years and also to have illuminated his own times.
General
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