Trustees
Thomas Plume’s Library is a charitable incorporated organisation (registered charity number 1179957). This superseded charity number 310661 on 1 April 2019. The charity was originally founded by the will of Dr Thomas Plume dated 2 September 1704.
Under the Constitution dated 17 September 2018, the body of trustees comprises between five and eight appointed trustees, one ex-officio trustee (the principal of the Plume Academy, Maldon), and four nominated trustees (one each nominated by Essex County Council, Maldon District Council, Maldon Town Council, and the Parochial Church Council of the Parish of All Saints with St Peter, Maldon).
Trustees (from the Public Register of Charities)
Mr Tom Baster
Lady Berney
Mrs Kati Claydon
Rev. John Dickens
Miss Sarah Dignasse
Cllr Jane Fleming
Dr Alfred Knightbridge
Cllr Andrew Lay (Chairman)
Mr Roy Pipe, JP
Mr Clive Potter
Mrs Stella Shires
Cllr Nick Spenceley
Mrs Sue Swaffin-Smith
A list of current trustees can be found on the website of the Charity Commission.
Annual reports and accounts for the last five years can be found here.
Any vacancies in the representative trustees are filled by nominations from the relevant appointing body.
Librarians of Thomas Plume’s Library
2019–present Dr Helen Kemp, PhD
2018–present: Paula Thomson (Assistant Librarian)
2004–2019: Erica Wylie, MA
2003–2004: John Michael Hayward, MA, MCLIP
2001–2017: Susan Belsham, MA, MCLIP (Assistant Librarian)
2001–2003: Olive Earnshaw
1998–2001: Dr William John Petchey, PhD (Retired Assistant Master, Ripon Grammar School)
1972–2001: Olive Earnshaw (Assistant Librarian)
1972–1998: Gwyneth Shacklock, ALA
1967–1972: Daniel W. Downes, LCP (Retired Assistant Master, Maldon Grammar School)
1947–1966: Sidney Deed, MA (Retired Headmaster, Maldon Grammar School)
1945-1946: No librarian
1917–1944: Isaac Seymour, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1907–1917: Leonard Hughes, MA, BD (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1901–1907: Alfred Wilson, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1852–1901: Edward Horwood, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1844–1852: Robert Crane, MA (Vicar of Tolleshunt Major and Heybridge)
1810-1844: Charles Matthew, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon, and Rector of Langford from 1832)
1773–1809: William Williams, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1771–1773: Laurence Eliot, MA (Curate of St Mary, Maldon)
1760–1770: Robert Hay, MA (Vicar of Heybridge)
1748–1760: William Hutchinson, MA (Curate of Woodham Walter)
1744–1748: Thomas Knipe, MA (Vicar of All Saints, Maldon)
1705–1743: Francis Thompson, MA (Vicar of Steeple, Master of the Grammar School)
William Scarrow, MA (Master of Maldon Grammar School 1705-1716) took custody of the books when they first arrived at the Library.