Thomas Plume (1630 – 20 November 1704) was an English churchman and philanthropist, and founder of a library in Maldon , Essex which still exists. The Plume School in Maldon is named after him.
16-503: The Plume family settled in the county of Essex at Great Yeldham . Thomas Plume was baptised in All Saints' Church, Maldon on 18 August 1630, as Thomas, son of Thomas and Hellen Plume. One John Plume had been the tenant of the Manor under John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford , during the reign of Henry VIII . Plume was educated at Chelmsford, Essex , and Christ's College, Cambridge . He became
32-455: A Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Doctor of Divinity (DD). In 1658 he was appointed Vicar of East Greenwich , Kent , in 1662 Rector of Merston , Sussex , and in 1665 Rector of Little Easton , Essex. From 1679 until his death, unmarried, on 20 November 1704, Thomas Plume was Archdeacon of Rochester , Kent. He was buried at Longfield , Kent. At the time of the Restoration in 1660 Plume
48-500: Is a village in north Essex , England, about 6 miles (10 km) from the Suffolk border. Great Yeldham is situated along the busy main A1017 road (formerly A604) between Braintree and Haverhill . The village is where the infant River Colne is joined by a stream from near Stambourne and another that has flowed via Toppesfield . The river flows via Colchester on its 39-mile journey to
64-462: Is of c1699 with the addition of two bays at east end in 1821. It was restored by Ewan Christian in 1875. The new building was built of red brick with stone dressings, coved cornices and slate roof. On the first floor of the library, there are original 17th-century fittings including wooden panelling. Historic England awarded a grant of £67,962 for repairs in February 2021. In 1704 Thomas Plume founded
80-612: The Colne Valley and Halstead Railway line between Chappel and Wakes Colne and Haverhill . The line crossed Station Road at a level crossing . The road has since been renamed Toppesfield Road. This Essex location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . William Covell William Covell (died 1613) was an English clergyman and writer. He was born in Chadderton , Lancashire , England, and proceeded MA at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1588. In
96-581: The Library's website . The Plume Library is no longer a lending library, though books may be consulted in situ . In 1989 it was determined that 723 books of the original bequest were missing; the Friends of the Plume Library have endeavoured to replace the missing volumes, and have purchased over 160 such texts. The building is Grade I listed. The former church tower is of the late 14th century. The library building
112-449: The 1590s Covell took part in the controversy about how far the newly reformed Church of England should abandon the liturgy and hierarchy of the past, to which debate he contributed several broadly anti- puritan works. In his later career he allied himself with Archbishop John Whitgift and afterwards with his successor, Richard Bancroft , who, like Covell, was Lancashire-born. William Covell died in 1613 at Mersham, Kent , where he
128-546: The Church, he was aware of intellectual changes taking place in other academic fields. He collected books which show his interests in other subjects: chemistry , astronomy , medicine , history and travel . Among this collection the following can be found: Even though he lived in Greenwich most of his life, Plume left his collection of over 8,000 books and pamphlets, printed between 1487 and his death, to his home town of Maldon. It
144-534: The chair of Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in order to "erect an Observatory and to maintain a studious and learned Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, and to buy him and his successors utensils and instruments quadrants telescopes etc". Plume was unmarried, and left the considerable wealth he had acquired mainly for charitable objects. The sums of £1,000, £700, and £202 12 s . 6 d . he devoted to
160-413: The foundation of a chair at Cambridge, bequeathing the money to William Covell , Master of Christ's ; Richard Bentley , master of Trinity ; Francis Thompson , of Caius ; and William Whiston , Lucasian professor , to "erect an observatory and to maintain a professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy, and to buy or build a house with or near the same." Great Yeldham Great Yeldham
176-601: The sea. Great Yeldham contains the "Great Oak", an old preserved oak tree in the centre of the village, which is claimed to have been recorded in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086. In 1967 Great Yeldham elected a Communist councillor, June Cohen, to the surprise of many in the area. From the 1950s to the 1970s Great Yeldham was home to the Whitlock Bros., an agricultural equipment manufacturer. In 1972 Whitlock Bros.
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#1732859138714192-482: The use of the library: "any Gentleman or Scholar who desires, may go into it, and make use of any book there or borrow it, in case he leaves a vadimonium [a pledge or surety] with the Keeper for the restoring thereof fair and uncorrupted within a short time". Plume's library continues to grow after his death with contributions from others. An online catalogue of Plume's collection was completed in 2009 and can be consulted via
208-408: Was rector . Covell's interest to modern scholars now largely depends on one polemical work published in 1595, Polimanteia . In the course of this work, dedicated to the 2nd Earl of Essex , Covell briefly mentioned contemporary authors such as Thomas Nashe , Samuel Daniel and William Shakespeare . Covell published in 1603 a religious volume which weighed in on the then-contemporary tension in
224-454: Was Vicar of Greenwich. He subscribed the declaration under the Act of Uniformity 1662 , although his father at Maldon had been a prominent Presbyterian . Thomas was admitted Vicar of Greenwich at the age of 28, on 22 September 1658. He remained in this role for the next 46 years. He was the first chairman of the governors of The John Roan School in Greenwich. Although Plume spent most of his life in
240-459: Was kept in St Peter's Church, of which only the original west tower survives; the rest of the building was rebuilt by Plume to house his library. The library was to be "for the use of the minister and clergy of the neighbouring parishes who generally make this town their place of residence on account of the unwholesomeness of the air in the vicinity of their churches". Plume left specific instruction for
256-506: Was taken over by Hymac, and production subsequently moved to Rhymney in South Wales. The Great Yeldham plant closed, resulting in many job losses. The land around Great Yeldham is principally used for arable farming and some livestock rearing. From the early 1950s until the mid-1980s Great Yeldham was also known for its apple and strawberry farm, Lark Hill Farm. Until 1962 it was served for passenger traffic by Yeldham railway station on
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