Robert Plot was an English naturalist, professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, and the first curator of the Ashmolean Museum. He was born on December 13, 1640, in Borden, Kent, and died on April 30, 1696, in Sutton Barne, Borden. Robert Plot is known as the man who discovered the dinosaurs by identifying the first dinosaur bone and even creating and publishing a drawing of it. However, he believed that the bone must have belonged to a giant species or even a giant human. He traveled to several different counties in England in search of natural rarities like this.
Robert Plot’s Early Life
The eponymous Robert Plot of Sutton Baron (or Barne) and Rebecca, a daughter of Thomas Platenden (or Pedenden) of Borden, had a son they named Robert. Robert was a Kent native who was born in 1640 and educated at the Wye Free School.
Plot attended Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he earned his B.A. in 1661, M.A. in 1664, B.C.L. in 1671, and D.C.L. in 1672. At Magdalen Hall, Plot also held the positions of dean and vice principal. He joined the natural philosophers’ circle at Oxford, where he met people like Robert Boyle and Thomas Willis.
Robert Plot is remembered as an inquisitive author who researched and documented the natural history of two counties, Oxfordshire and Staffordshire. He created detailed maps and descriptions of these regions.
In his Natural History of Staffordshire, Robert Plot published the hand measurements of the tallest human ever to live in recorded history, John Middleton.
He also mentioned an abandoned tunnel system and a rare double sunset. According to Plot’s book, a farmhand discovered the tunnel system’s entrance while excavating a trench. The narrative turned into a global urban mythology about a network of underground metropolises.
As a result of his work with minerals, he was invited to join the Royal Society in December 1677, where he served as secretary from 1682 to 1684 and, beginning in 1682, as a co-editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, a scientific journal.
His Discovery of a Dinosaur Bone
In 1674, he started exploring the rural areas of Oxfordshire in search of artifacts. Robert Plot found the first dinosaur bone in 1677. It was the distal end of a femur bone that formed the knee, and Plot had discovered it in the Cornwell village of Oxfordshire.
He determined, after comparing it to bones from current elephants, that this massive bone specimen did not originate from elephants, horses, or oxen.
He guessed that a previously unknown large animal or human species must have owned this bone. Plot hypothesized that the specimens with enormous bones may belong to proportionally tall men or women from different eras, including his own. He cited historical figures and foreign news as instances of giants.
He also said that he did not know where the enormous bone specimens came from since he did not know anything about dinosaurs like Megalosaurus.
Even though he misinterpreted them at first, the earliest drawings of a dinosaur bone were published in his Natural History of Oxfordshire (1677). The dinosaur Megalosaurus was eventually linked to this bone.
It was actually William Buckland in 1824 who first properly identified a dinosaur fossil. However, this wouldn’t be possible without the earliest efforts of Robert Plot, some 150 years ago.
At this time, Buckland had established the Department of Geology at Oxford as its first professor. Richard Owen, a paleontologist working at the British Museum, is known for coining the term “dinosaur” in 1841.
Positions Held by Robert Plot
From 1683 until 1690, Robert Plot held the position of First Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum. The praise for his debut book influenced the decision to establish this museum.
Beginning in 1683, he held the position of professor of chemistry at Oxford. In 1687, Plot was appointed registrar of the Norfolk Court of Chivalry and secretary to Earl Marshal Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (1655–1701).
His royal title was Historiographer Royal in 1688, and he was promoted to Mowbray Herald Extraordinary in 1694. This office was specifically recreated for Plot at the time.
His Research and Theories
Since Robert Plot thought medicine relied on alchemy, he was investigating the possibility of creating a universal solvent out of wine spirit. He instead said he discovered the “first matter.” He also began doing archaeology in 1686, although he incorrectly attributed Roman artifacts to the Saxons and Danes.
Plot’s understanding of the Baconian method led him to study natural history with an eye for the unusual and remarkable. He thought that outliers and anomalies always provided useful information. His early natural history works focused on astronomical occurrences, recording odd weather patterns that had been seen around the region.
Robert studied the properties and acoustic characteristics of air using echoes, analyzed the chemical composition of mineral water at natural springs, and even recognized the earth’s layered structure, or strata, from his observations. He achieved all this because of his keen interest in anything but the remarkable.
The “formed stones” that formerly included Robert’s fossilized dinosaur bone, the Plot bone, have long since disappeared.
He hypothesized that springs may be nourished with seawater via subterranean tunnels and explained the discovery of fossil shellfish and other fossils as the accidental collection of mineral crystals. For him, most fossils were salt mineral crystallizations rather than the decayed remnants of once-living animals.
But Plot was also aware of several fossils that he believed were from an organic source but could not positively identify.
He came across “formed stones” that take the shape of various animals and human body parts. One such stone depicted what seemed to be a human brain, olfactory nerve, eye, ear, and breast. He thought these rocks were divinely crafted and meant to be admired and studied by humans.
Plot explored scientific explanations for extraordinary phenomena like fairy rings and frog rains in his research.
His Late Life and Death
Robert Plot married Rebecca Burman of London, the former wife of Henry Burton and the daughter of a London grocer named Ralph Sherwood. In the summer of 1690, he resigned from his positions at Oxford and returned to his home in Borden.
He explained that his decision to leave Oxford was due to an inadequate stipend. In his home, he began but never finished writing The Natural History of Middlesex and Kent on his estate at Sutton Barne.
Robert Plot passed away from severe illness due to kidney stones on April 30th, 1696, and was laid to rest in the Borden Church at the age of 55. A commemorative plaque has been erected there in his name.
Robert Plot’s Legacy
Robert Plot’s research on fossils questioned established explanations for their origin, contributing to a heated controversy in the scientific community at the time.
His research into fossils’ composition and his thoughts on crystallization and salts aided in expanding our knowledge of geology and paleontology. The neoplatonic school of thinking, popular during Plot’s time, is evident in his focus on the symbolic and analogical linkages between nature and the human body.
As a neoplatonist, crystallization, which he characterized as a molding power or “plastic virtue,” was the purported ruler of the whole universe, including all living and nonliving things, according to Plot.
Some of Plot’s interpretations of fossils may appear odd by today’s standards, yet his work laid the groundwork for current paleontological research.
Robert Plot’s lifelong commitment to the conservation of natural history has paved the way for future scientists and historians.
Robert’s works had their flaws, but they did a lot of good for his time since he was the first to collect and compile data on the distribution of rocks, fossils, minerals, flora, and fauna.
References
- The Natural History of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England – By Robert Plot – Google Books.
- The Correspondence of Robert Plot – Ox.ac.uk
- Robert Plot – Oxford University Museum of Natural History
- Robert Plot – Linda Hall Library
