Exit Ussher, enter Brownrig:
the tale of a portrait in the Plume Library, Maldon
Among the paintings bequeathed to his library on his death, Thomas Plume (1630-1704) included one which was for many years described as being a likeness of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (1581-1656). However, in October 2008 two members of the Plume Library staff, cataloguer Ian Kidman and conservator Tony King, saw a near-exact likeness of this picture in Pembroke College, Cambridge, where it was said to be of Ralph Brownrig (or Brownrigg), bishop of Exeter (1592-1659).1 Brownrig was a scholar and subsequently a fellow of Pembroke.
Ralph Brownrig image courtesy of The Public Catalogue Foundation
The Plume Librarian, Mrs Erica Wylie, took up the matter with the National Portrait Gallery, who confirmed that the Plume Library portrait is certainly that of Ralph Brownrig. We are left, therefore, with two questions: why did Plume own this portrait, and is it possible to say where it may have come from?
Ralph Brownrig was, like the founder of the Plume Library, a product of the mercantile class of coastal East Anglia, and was educated at his local grammar school and Cambridge University (in Brownrig’s case, Ipswich and Pembroke College). Brownrig became a fellow of his college and held various livings quite near Cambridge. He was clearly a man of great ability, because he was made prebend of Lichfield in 1629, archdeacon of Coventry in 1631, and prebend of Durham in 1641. John Hacket (1590-1670) was a contemporary of Brownrig’s at Cambridge, having been educated at Trinity College.2 He held various ecclesiastical posts, including that of archdeacon of Bedford in 1631, and was made bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1661.
Both Brownrig and Hacket were noted Calvinists, and both were chaplains to Charles I. They had serious reservations about the influence of William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645), on the belief and practice of the church. In the convocation of 1637 they together criticized the altar-wise position of the holy table, a very important issue of the day and very dear to Laud’s heart. As archdeacons, they were able to speak more freely than Calvinist bishops would have been able to. There is much more that could be written concerning the similarity of Brownrig’s and Hacket’s religious persuasions, but that is beyond the scope of this short article. Suffice it to say that there was a great sympathy between them in matters of the church and religion. Furthermore, they were both devoted to the monarchy, in principle and in the person of Charles I.
Hacket was Plume’s friend and mentor from the 1650s onwards. In 1667 he stated in that he would award the next prebend of Lichfield to Plume ‘if I live so long’.3 Plume records Hacket as having told him that Brownrig was a better preacher than he: ‘Dr H[acket] ackn[owledged] he c[ou]ld nev[er] imit[ate] Mr Hawksw[or]th for poesy – my L[or]d St Albans for an Engl[ish] style nor B[isho]p Brownrig for p[re]aching.’4 Hacket was not the only one to have a high opinion of Brownrig’s preaching. William Martyn, who published Brownrig’s Fourty Sermons, commented in his foreword: ‘the World may know that pious, Practical Preaching and Prelatical Dignity are not inconsistent’.5
Brownrig was consecrated bishop of Exeter in Westminster in 1642. He did not go to Exeter but remained at Cambridge where he was vice-chancellor. In 1645 he was arrested and imprisoned for preaching before the university on the anniversary of the king’s coronation. He was eventually released upon payment of a fine of £5,000 and was deprived of his college and university posts. The next year he lost his income as bishop when Parliament abolished the post of bishop (and other ecclesiastical posts) in favour of presbyterian church government.
Brownrig continued to carry out his spiritual duties as far as possible, including ordinations, particularly that of Edward Stillingfleet, who later became bishop of Worcester. As he had lost most of his income, he stayed at the home of various friends (always contributing to his keep), often with Thomas Rich, a merchant, who had houses at Sonning in Berkshire and at Wimbledon. At this time Hacket, who had been deprived of his main benefice of St Andrew’s, Holborn, was living quietly at his remaining living of Cheam, just five miles away from Wimbledon.
Plume graduated BA from Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1649/50. On 1 January 1650/1 he began a new notebook,6 and I have surmised elsewhere7 that as, towards the end of this notebook, he writes ‘Finis Nonsuch September 20 1656’,8 during some of those five years he was living within a mile of Hacket. The notebook contains many anecdotes of Hacket and his circle, including the one mentioning Brownrig referred to above. Furthermore, the book contains Plume’s notes on twenty books which portray a churchmanship very similar to that embraced by Hacket. I have concluded, therefore, that for part of these five years, Plume followed an informal course of study under Hacket.9
Brian Duppa image courtesy of the Public Catalogue Foundation
Plume received episcopal ordination during or before 1658, when he was inducted into the living of Greenwich. I have speculated elsewhere10 that he might have been ordained by Brian Duppa, bishop of Salisbury (1558-1662), whose portrait is also in the Plume Library, as he was then living at Richmond, only seven miles from Cheam. This speculation was based on the knowledge that Duppa, like Brownrig, continued to exercise the bishop’s function of ordination during the republic. There is, however, no known connection between Plume and Duppa, apart from the placing of his portrait in the Plume Library. However, as we have seen, there are strong connections between Hacket, Plume’s mentor, and Brownrig, which were highlighted when it became known that his portrait is also in the Plume Library. It must be concluded, therefore, that, whilst there is still no conclusive evidence that Brownrig ordained Plume, he is a better candidate for it than Duppa.
I now turn to the question of the provenance of the portrait; but this is, if anything, even more speculative than the question of ordination. Mrs Wylie’s attention was drawn by the National Portrait Gallery to the previous existence of another copy of Brownrig’s portrait than the ones in the Plume Library and Pembroke College.11 John Evelyn (1620-1706) recorded having seen Brownrig’s portrait in Clarendon House when he wrote to Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) on 12 August 1689.12 Pepys had asked Evelyn’s advice on setting up a library and, failing to find him at home, Evelyn wrote him a long letter, setting out his ideas in detail. He recorded seeing no fewer than seventy-one portraits in Clarendon House plus those of other classes of people including judges, archbishops, bishops and other notables. As well as Brownrig, Evelyn mentions having seen there the portraits of Brian Duppa and William Laud, so there are three portraits mentioned by Evelyn as being in Clarendon House which are in the Plume Library. All three portraits are illustrated in the Public Catalogue Foundation catalogue for Essex.13
William Laud image courtesy of the Public Catalogue Foundation
Evelyn was very close to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674); he visited the building site of Clarendon House with him and the Countess in 1664, and he visited again the next year when he praised the empty shell. Clarendon had been the king’s first minister but he was dismissed in 1667 after the disgrace inflicted on the Navy by the Dutch in that year. Popular anger at this humiliation led to civil disturbances, and the mob attacked Clarendon House, smashing all the windows and destroying the garden.14 The house was demolished in 1683; it is not known when Evelyn saw the pictures.15
John Evelyn’s home, Sayes Court in Deptford, was in the next parish to Greenwich and he recorded hearing Plume preach on more than one occasion. For example, on 16 September 1666, just after the Great Fire of London, he wrote, ‘I went to Greenewich church where Mr Plume preached very well from this text: “seeing therefore all these things must be dissolved, etc.,” taking occasion from ye late unparalleled conflagration to mind us how we ought to walke more holyly in all manner of conversation.’16
Frontispiece of Fourty Sermons by the Right Reverend Father in God, Ralph Brownrig, late Lord Bishop of Exceter.
The book by Brownrig and the four books by the Earl of Clarendon have been examined for personal notes by Plume, but, as is so often the case with him, he made none in these books. Duppa’s and Brownrig’s portraits have been examined for any evidence of provenance but none has been found. At the time of writing, Laud’s portrait has not been fully scrutinized, but as nothing was noted when this picture was inspected at the National Portrait Gallery, it is not expected that anything will be found when the back can be examined.
Thomas Plume was noted for buying second-hand books; perhaps he was not, therefore, averse to acquiring second-hand pictures? (It is known that pictures were sold at auction in this period; John Evelyn, the son of the diarist, was buying pictures in this way at this time.17) It is therefore just possible that with his connection to John Evelyn senior, Plume might have purchased these three pictures of Brownrig, Duppa and Laud when Clarendon House was cleared prior to its demolition in 1683.
Apology from the author:
This short article is highly speculative, and, it is, therefore quite unsatisfactory as a piece of historical research. It is, however, the fate of anyone attempting to reconstruct Plume’s life to have to make what one can of the scanty evidence before one, and therefore to speculate, or to say nothing at all.
R. A. Doe
31 August 2009
Notes:
1. Mary Wolffe, ‘Brownrigg, Ralph (1592-1659)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. Both spellings are used but I will use ‘Brownrig’, as that is used in in his book, Fourty Sermons, 1661 [http://www.thomasplumeslibrary.co.uk/catalogue] [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3716, accessed 2 Oct 2008]
2. Brian Quintrell, ‘Hacket, John (1592-1670)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11837, accessed 4 Oct 2004]
3. ‘Plume, Thomas (1630-1704)’ DNB (Oxford 1921-22) XXII Supplement, p. 1146
4. Plume Library MS. 7, fol. 67r
5. Brownrig, op. cit., foreword
6. Ibid., fol. 10r
7. R. A. Doe, ‘The Churchmanship of Thomas Plume (1630-1704) A study of a career in the Restoration Church of England’ (unpublished MA dissertation, University of Essex, 2005), p. 29
8. MS 7, fol. 82v
9. Doe, op. cit., p. 29
10. Ibid., p. 43
11. Rab MacGibbon, Assistant Curator, National Portrait Gallery by email 21/10/08
12. Diary of John Evelyn, vol. III, London, 1879, ‘from the original MSS by William Bray, with a life of the Author by Henry Wheatley’, pp. 443/4
13. Sonia Roe et al., Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Essex, (London: Public Catalogue Foundation, 2006), pp. 215-217. The portrait of Ralph Brownrig is incorrectly labelled Dr James Ussher. (On p. 214 is illustrated the portrait of Thomas Plume in the Moot Hall, Maldon.)
14. Gillian Darley, John Evelyn: living for ingenuity (New Haven and London, 2006), p. 202
15. Ibid., p. 264
16. Diary of John Evelyn, op. cit., vol. II, p. 209
17. Darley, op. cit., p. 290