News & Events -
The Frank and Patricia Herrmann Award
25th November 2010
- Hannah Salisbury (left), Frank Herrmann (centre) and Chairman of the Friends Mr R A Doe (right).
The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library are pleased to announce that this month they have made the first grant of the Award. The winner is Hannah Salisbury, who submitted an essay of just over 4,000 words entitled ‘A World of Heat and Clamour: the life and times of an Essex Vicar’. This recounts the salient facts of the life of Hippolito du Chastelet de Luzancy d. 1713, who was a French convert to the Church of England from Roman Catholicism in about 1674/5, and was vicar of Harwich from 1678 to 1702 and then vicar of South Weald until his death. Both parishes are in Essex.
Soon after Luzancy’s arrival in this country he was forced to recant at knife-point by a Jesuit. This caused a great clamour in Parliament, leading to the issue of a Royal Proclamation against this man, Pierre St Germain, who then fled the country. The essay examines Luzancy’s writings both concerning these events and his subsequent attacks on Socianism and goes on to place him in the context of the religious and social upheavals of his day and the likely reasons that Dr Plume collected three of his books, namely his fight against separation from the Church of England. It also draws our attention to Plume’s relationship with another Roman Catholic convert to the Church of England at this time and compares the careers of both men.
There were no other entries for the Award on this occasion but the judges were unanimous in deciding that the essay handsomely met the criteria listed on our website, adding that it was very well researched and very well written Our cheque for £500 was presented at a simple ceremony recently and a more formal event to mark this occasion will be held later, when hopefully Mr and Mrs Herrmann will be able to be present. Mr Neil Wiffen the editor informs us the essay will be published in the Essex Journal next Spring.
We continue to invite entries for the Award, which should be submitted as stated in the website by 31st March 2012, the new closing date.
New Publication
4th November 2010
Exit Ussher, enter Brownrig:the tale of a portrait in the Plume Library, Maldon
7th October 2009Among 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.
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? Read more
Cologne Archive Collapse
25th June 2009
Recovery of documents from the site of the collapse
On the Third of March 2009, the building housing the Cologne City Archive (Kölner Stadtarchiv) collapsed killing 2 people and causing huge damage to the documents and books housed within. The building was a 6 stories, purpose built Record Office dating from 1971 and the cause of the collapse is thought to be the construction of an underground train line running alongside the building. Cologne City Archive’s holdings totalled 26 shelve kilometres and included a large number of important parchment charters, the earliest from 922 as well as being a repository for modern day government records.
In the weeks following the disaster Cologne City Archive appealed for volunteers to assist in the massive rescue operation and Thomas Plume’s Library sent their Conservator, Tony King. Tony travelled with a group of archivists from Essex Record Office who spent a week helping at the scene of the collapse and learning how to deal with a disaster of this scale. Read the rest of this entry »