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Robert Plot
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<h2 id="early-life-and-education">Early life and education</h2> <p>Born in <a href="/facts/Borden,_Kent/DqNuCEwB">Borden, Kent</a> to parents Robert Plot and Elisabeth Patenden, and <a href="/facts/Baptism/wEY6gtGA">baptised</a> on 13 December 1640, Plot was educated at the <a href="/facts/Wye_College/3tY69Fgx">Wye Free School</a> in Kent. He entered <a href="/facts/Magdalen_Hall,_Oxford/7Td49Wgf">Magdalen Hall, Oxford</a> in 1658 where he graduated with a BA in 1661 and an <a href="/facts/Master_of_Arts_(Oxbridge_and_Dublin)/kx7NTGR1">MA</a> in 1664. Plot subsequently taught and served as dean and vice principal at Magdalen Hall while preparing for his <a href="/facts/Bachelor_of_Civil_Law/YoWkd6YE">BCL</a> and <a href="/facts/Doctor_of_Civil_Law/Vd3zRm6U">DCL</a>, which he received in 1671 before moving to <a href="/facts/University_College,_Oxford/Nqf8PS7U">University College</a> in 1676.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="natural-history-and-chemistry">Natural history and chemistry</h2> <p>By this time, Plot had already developed an interest in the systematic study of natural history and <a href="/facts/Antiquities/Kb2fN0qX">antiquities</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> In June 1674, with patronage from <a href="/facts/John_Fell_(bishop)/NSJPWkeD">John Fell</a>, the <a href="/facts/Bishop_of_Oxford/a5g7ohW9">bishop of Oxford</a>, and <a href="/facts/Ralph_Bathurst/S7TNqGST">Ralph Bathurst</a>, <a href="/facts/Vice-Chancellors_of_the_University_of_Oxford/lAsQaJRH">vice-chancellor</a> of the university, Plot began studying and collecting artefacts throughout the nearby countryside, publishing his findings three years later in <i>The Natural History of Oxford-shire</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> In this work, he described and illustrated various <a href="/facts/Rock_(geology)/FXCJkmop">rocks</a>, minerals and <a href="/facts/Fossil/by7NzIA1">fossils</a>, including the first known illustration of a <a href="/facts/Dinosaur/JRdMqBnq">dinosaur</a> <a href="/facts/Bone/kwJaR6IQ">bone</a> which he attributed to a giant human (later recognised as the femur of a <i><a href="/facts/Megalosaurus/7Jtw1cYc">Megalosaurus</a></i>), but believed that most fossils were not remains of living organisms but rather <a href="/facts/Crystallisation/oCUUG80k">crystallisations</a> of mineral <a href="/facts/Salt_(chemistry)/lsSKwGpn">salts</a> with a coincidental <a href="/facts/Zoology/6Kj13mBt">zoological</a> form.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>The favourable reception of his findings not only earned him the nickname of the "learned Dr. Plot," but also led to his election into the <a href="/facts/Royal_Society_of_London/KI5yXCuV">Royal Society of London</a> on 6 December 1677, where he served as the society's secretary and joint editor of the <i><a href="/facts/Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society/a0l7M7RR">Philosophical Transactions</a></i> (144–178) from 1682 through 1684.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> Another implication of his success was his appointment as the first keeper of the newly established Ashmolean Museum in 1683, as well as his simultaneous appointment as the first professor of chemistry in the new well-equipped laboratory housed within the museum.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>In the field of chemistry, he searched for a <a href="/facts/Alkahest/6jDuMdJd">universal solvent</a> that could be obtained from wine <a href="/facts/Distilled_beverage/azoTp1Mq">spirits</a>, and believed that <a href="/facts/Alchemy/CEx0U1Em">alchemy</a> was necessary for medicine. In 1684, Plot published <i>De origine fontium</i>, a <a href="/facts/Treatise/ED3heHjb">treatise</a> on the source of <a href="/facts/Spring_(hydrology)/blPBY4VG">springs</a>, which he attributed to underground channels originating from the sea. Plot shifted his focus towards <a href="/facts/Archaeology/K3Q5P38R">archaeology</a> in the 1686 publication of his second book, <i>The Natural History of Staffordshire</i>, but misinterpreted <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman</a> remains as <a href="/facts/Saxons/mqm06m4r">Saxon</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> He also describes a <a href="/facts/Double_sunset/doyEpcbp">double sunset</a> viewable from <a href="/facts/Leek,_Staffordshire/CAxXSHMJ">Leek</a>, the <a href="/facts/Abbots_Bromley_Horn_Dance/AqrcA0hK">Abbots Bromley Horn Dance</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> and, for the first time, the <a href="/facts/Polish_swan/Vp78quHJ">Polish swan</a>, a pale morph of the mute swan.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="later-life-and-death">Later life and death</h2> <p>In 1687, Plot was made a <a href="/facts/Notary_public/8awyPcXu">notary public</a> by the <a href="/facts/Archbishop_of_Canterbury/x3H2z6bI">Archbishop of Canterbury</a> as well as appointed the registrar to the <a href="/facts/Norfolk/eHSNIRud">Norfolk</a> <a href="/facts/Court_of_Chivalry/EF61wW6H">Court of Chivalry</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> Plot resigned from his posts at Oxford in 1690, thereafter marrying Rebecca Burman of London and retiring to his property of Sutton Barne in his hometown of Borden, where he worked on <i>The Natural History of Middlesex and Kent</i> but never completed.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> The office of <a href="/facts/Mowbray_Herald_Extraordinary/wqKNzgw4">Mowbray Herald Extraordinary</a> was created in January 1695 for Plot, who was made registrar of the <a href="/facts/College_of_Heralds/Sa7ultEv">College of Heralds</a> just two days later.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> Although able to go on an archaeological tour of <a href="/facts/England/U9mE5bGL">Anglia</a> in September 1695, Plot was greatly suffering from <a href="/facts/Urinary_calculus/8EowkGyr">urinary calculi</a> (kidney stones), and succumbed to his illness on 30 April 1696 aged 55. He was buried at Borden Church, where a plaque memorialises him.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p> Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Plot. <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Plot, Robert (1705). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=J8wQAAAAIAAJ"><i>The Natural History of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Towards the Natural History of England</i></a> (2nd ed.). Oxford: Printed by Leon. Lichfield.</li> <li><a href="http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=robert-plot">The Correspondence of Robert Plot</a> in <a href="http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home">EMLO</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Plot,_Robert">"Plot, Robert" </a>. <i><a href="/facts/Dictionary_of_National_Biography/QCm9t1Sn">Dictionary of National Biography</a></i>. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Hugh_Chisholm/2vWblUBe">Chisholm, Hugh</a>, ed. (1911). <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Plot,_Robert">"Plot, Robert" </a>. <i><a href="/facts/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition/mPElbCRY">Encyclopædia Britannica</a></i> (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/britarch/collections/plot.html">Robert Plot</a> from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li>Plot, Robert (1676) <a href="http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/38239"><i>The natural history of Oxford-shire</i></a> – digital facsimile from the <a href="/facts/Linda_Hall_Library/tu6UDWST">Linda Hall Library</a></li> <li>Hutchinson, John (1892). <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Men_of_Kent_and_Kentishmen/Robert_Plot">"Robert Plot" </a>. <i>Men of Kent and Kentishmen</i> (Subscription ed.). Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. pp. 110–111.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Turner, A. J. (2004). "Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22385. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Plot, Robert." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 40–41. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 June 2013. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Robert Plot: A brief biography of this important geologist's life and work" (PDF). UK: Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Turner, A. J. (2004). "Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22385. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Robert Plot: A brief biography of this important geologist's life and work" (PDF). UK: Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Turner, A. J. (2004). "Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22385. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Plot, Robert." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 40–41. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 June 2013. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Plot, Robert." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 40–41. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 June 2013. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Dr. Plot and the Amazing Double Sunset". leekonline.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2005. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130908074516/http://www.leekonline.co.uk/sunset/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20130908074516/http://www.leekonline.co.uk/sunset/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Kent, Jeff (2001). The Mysterious Double Sunset. Witan Books. pp. 34–35 and 38–42. ISBN 0-9529152-5-1. <a href="0-9529152-5-1" target="_blank">0-9529152-5-1</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Taylor, Moss (January 2018). "The Polish swan in Britain & Ireland". British Birds. 111 (1): 10–24. <a href="/wiki/British_Birds_(magazine)" target="_blank">/wiki/British_Birds_(magazine)</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Turner, A. J. (2004). "Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22385. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Plot, Robert." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 11. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 40–41. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 June 2013. <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Turner, A. J. (2004). "Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22385. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>"Robert Plot: A brief biography of this important geologist's life and work" (PDF). UK: Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>