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.
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.