You will hear the name Plume a great deal around Maldon – commemorated forever in The Plume Academy, Plume Avenue and, of course, in Thomas Plume’s Library. But who was the man behind the name?
Dr Thomas Plume was born in 1630 and baptised in All Saints’ Church, the younger son of Thomas Plume senior, a wealthy merchant in Maldon, and his wife Helen. He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford, then at Christ’s College Cambridge where he became both a Bachelor of Arts and a Doctor of Divinity.
He was appointed vicar of East Greenwich in 1658, followed by positions in Merston, Little Easton in Essex and Rochester. His faith was traditional and staunchly Anglican, and his preaching was praised by Samuel Pepys, but it was perhaps the case that he achieved more after his death, in 1704, than during his lifetime, thanks to a legacy that is still going strong today.
Plume was unmarried and childless, so he left his considerable fortune to benefit the community, including his hometown of Maldon where he paid for the crumbling St Peter’s Church to be repaired, with a new public library on the top floor and a new building for the local grammar school, later renamed after him, on the ground floor. The Plume, Maldon’s Community Academy, has long since moved to larger premises, but the library is still one of the town’s most important tourist attractions, as well as attracting researchers from around the world.
His money also funded Maldon's first workhouse on Market Hill, colloquially known as 'The Spike', now houses. Further afield, he funded the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy at Cambridge University, a role which has been filled right up to the present day, with the current incumbent being leading black hole expert Professor Christopher Reynolds.
Dr Thomas Plume was a private, modest man. He stipulated that his portrait, by an unknown artist, should not hang in the library that bears his name, so it can now be found in the Moot Hall. Even his gravestone, at Longfield in Kent, only bears the words ‘Beneath here lies the Archdeacon of Rochester…’ But here in Maldon, we remember him proudly!
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