Note F — INTRODUCTION.

Dr. Robert Plot (1640-1696) was born at Sutton Barne, Kent, in 1640; he graduated M.A. in 1664, and D.C.L. at Oxford in 1671. He was chiefly noted as an antiquary, and was Secretary of the Royal Society from 1682 to 1684, also the first custodian of the Ashmoleian Museum and Professor of Chemistry at Oxford. In 1677 he published his "Natural History of Oxfordshire," the first local work of the kind which appeared; it was illustrated by sixteen plates. In 1686 he also published "The Natural History of Staffordshire," and subsequently many other books and papers. He was evidently acquainted with most of the learned men of his time. Plot died at his family estate Sutton Barne, on the 30th of April, 1696, and was buried at Borden in Kent. Dr. Plot was a friend of Browne's, and his companion in a tour in England in 1693.—"Dict. Nat. Biog."