The Library of Dr Thomas Plume
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A COMMEMORATIVE
BENEFACTION
This is a scheme which enables you or your friends to keep your
name or theirs alive in the long term, by helping to increase the
endowment of one of the great jewels of East Anglia – the Library
of Dr Thomas Plume in Maldon, Essex.
It was founded 300 years ago, in 1704, when Dr Plume converted a
derelict church into a library and grammar school and left the town
of Maldon some 7,000 books to be used for the public good. The
collection has volumes on all subjects known in the seventeenth
century. The Library still exists today in its original home, and is
open to the public on four days each week.
It is a visually stunning time capsule, and not only is it historically
fascinating as a rare survival of its kind, but it includes many books
not in the British Library and is an invaluable resource to scholars
for research of all kinds. However, the endowment Dr Plume left
us is no longer sufficient for the maintenance of the library as Dr
Plume directed in his will, and the Library Trustees are having to
seek sums to add to our existing endowment for the general upkeep
of the Library.
That is why we have set up this scheme. But we do not merely
seek your financial help: we want to make sure that all our