View source for Robert Plot

{{short description|English naturalist and antiquarian (1640–1696)}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix   = <!-- see [[MOS:CREDENTIAL]] and [[MOS:HONORIFIC]] -->
| name               = 
| honorific_suffix   = [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]
| image              = ROBERT PLOT.webp
| alt                = Painting of Robert Plot
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=y|1640|12|13}}
| birth_place        = [[Borden, Kent]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=y|1696|04|30|1640|12|13}}
| death_place        = England
| nationality        = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| citizenship        = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Professor of Chemistry<br/>Museum keeper
| period             = 
| known_for          = First Professor of Chemistry at the [[University of Oxford]]; first keeper of the [[Asmolean Museum]]
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| awards             = <!--notable national-level awards only-->
| website            = 
| education          = [[Wye College|Wye Free School]]
| alma_mater         = [[Magdalen Hall, Oxford]]<br/>[[University College, Oxford]]
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| influences         = <!--must be referenced from a third-party source-->
| era                = 
| discipline         = [[Chemist]]
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| workplaces         = [[University of Oxford]]<br/>[[Ashmolean Museum]]
| doctoral_students  = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students   = 
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = ''The Natural History of Oxford-shire'' (1677)<br/>''De origine fontium'' (1684)
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}}

'''Robert Plot''' (13 December 1640 – 30 April 1696) was an English [[naturalist]] and [[antiquarian]] who was the first professor of [[chemistry]] at the [[University of Oxford]] and the first keeper of the [[Ashmolean Museum]].

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Borden, Kent]] to parents Robert Plot and Elisabeth Patenden, and [[Baptism|baptised]] on 13 December 1640, Plot was educated at the [[Wye College|Wye Free School]] in Kent. He entered [[Magdalen Hall, Oxford]] in 1658 where he graduated with a BA in 1661 and an [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA]] in 1664. Plot subsequently taught and served as dean and vice principal at Magdalen Hall while preparing for his [[Bachelor of Civil Law|BCL]] and [[Doctor of Civil Law|DCL]], which he received in 1671 before moving to [[University College, Oxford|University College]] in 1676.<ref name="Turner">{{ODNB |first=A. J. |last=Turner |title=Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696) |year=2004 |id=22385 }}</ref><ref name="Scribner">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.</ref>

==Natural history and chemistry==
By this time, Plot had already developed an interest in the systematic study of natural history and [[antiquities]].<ref name="OUMNH">{{cite web | title=Robert Plot: A brief biography of this important geologist's life and work. | url=http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf | publisher=[[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]] | location=UK | access-date=4 June 2013 | archive-date=1 October 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001094736/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/plot.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> In June 1674, with patronage from [[John Fell (bishop)|John Fell]], the [[bishop of Oxford]], and [[Ralph Bathurst]], [[Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford|vice-chancellor]] of the university, Plot began studying and collecting artefacts throughout the nearby countryside, publishing his findings three years later in ''The Natural History of Oxford-shire''.<ref name="Turner" /> In this work, he described and illustrated various [[Rock (geology)|rocks]], minerals and [[fossil]]s, including the first known illustration of a [[dinosaur]] [[bone]] which he attributed to a giant human (later recognised as the femur of a ''[[Megalosaurus]]''), but believed that most fossils were not remains of living organisms but rather [[crystallisation]]s of mineral [[Salt (chemistry)|salts]] with a coincidental [[Zoology|zoological]] form.<ref name="OUMNH" />

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 [[Royal Society of London]] on 6 December 1677, where he served as the society's secretary and joint editor of the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]'' (144–178) from 1682 through 1684.<ref name="Turner" /> 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.<ref name="Scribner" />

In the field of chemistry, he searched for a [[Alkahest|universal solvent]] that could be obtained from wine [[Distilled beverage|spirits]], and believed that [[alchemy]] was necessary for medicine. In 1684, Plot published ''De origine fontium'', a [[treatise]] on the source of [[Spring (hydrology)|springs]], which he attributed to underground channels originating from the sea. Plot shifted his focus towards [[archaeology]] in the 1686 publication of his second book, ''The Natural History of Staffordshire'', but misinterpreted [[Roman Empire|Roman]] remains as [[Saxons|Saxon]].<ref name="Scribner" /> He also describes a [[double sunset]] viewable from [[Leek, Staffordshire|Leek]], the [[Abbots Bromley Horn Dance]].<ref name="Leek">{{cite web|title=Dr. Plot and the Amazing Double Sunset|url=http://www.leekonline.co.uk/sunset/|publisher=leekonline.co.uk.|access-date=27 March 2005|archive-date=8 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130908074516/http://www.leekonline.co.uk/sunset/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Kent">{{cite book|last=Kent|first=Jeff|title=The Mysterious Double Sunset|year=2001|publisher=Witan Books|isbn=0-9529152-5-1|pages=34–35 and 38–42}}</ref> and, for the first time, the [[Polish swan]], a pale morph of the mute swan.<ref name="Taylor">{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=Moss|title=The Polish swan in Britain & Ireland|journal=[[British Birds (magazine)|British Birds]]|date=January 2018|volume=111|issue=1|pages=10–24}}</ref>

==Later life and death==
In 1687, Plot was made a [[notary public]] by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] as well as appointed the registrar to the [[Norfolk]] [[Court of Chivalry]].<ref name="Turner" /> 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 ''The Natural History of Middlesex and Kent'' but never completed.<ref name="Scribner" /> The office of [[Mowbray Herald Extraordinary]] was created in January 1695 for Plot, who was made registrar of the [[College of Heralds]] just two days later.<ref name="Turner" /> Although able to go on an archaeological tour of [[England|Anglia]] in September 1695, Plot was greatly suffering from [[Urinary calculus|urinary calculi]] (kidney stones), and succumbed to his illness on 30 April 1696 aged 55. He was buried at Borden Church, where a plaque memorialises him.<ref name="OUMNH" />

==References==
{{commons|Robert Plot}}
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Plot|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J8wQAAAAIAAJ|title=The Natural History of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Towards the Natural History of England|publisher=Printed by Leon. Lichfield|location=Oxford|edition=2nd|year=1705|ref=Plot}}
*[http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=robert-plot The Correspondence of Robert Plot] in [http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home EMLO]
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Plot, Robert}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Plot, Robert}}
* [http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/britarch/collections/plot.html Robert Plot] from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

==External links==
* Plot, Robert (1676) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/38239 ''The natural history of Oxford-shire''] – digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]]
* {{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=John |title=Men of Kent and Kentishmen |date=1892 |publisher=Cross & Jackman |location=Canterbury |pages=110–111 |edition=Subscription  |chapter=[[s:Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Robert Plot|Robert Plot]]}}

{{Ashmolean Museum keepers and directors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plot, Robert}}
[[Category:1640 births]]
[[Category:1696 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sittingbourne]]
[[Category:Alumni of Wye College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen Hall, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English alchemists]]
[[Category:English naturalists]]
[[Category:English chemists]]
[[Category:English curators]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Keepers and directors of the Ashmolean Museum]]
[[Category:English officers of arms]]
[[Category:17th-century alchemists]]