James Plumptre (2 October 1771 – 23 January 1832) was an English Anglican clergyman, playwright and writer. His work included plays, writings on the moral use and reform of the stage, and sermons on the treatment of animals. In 1796, he preached "The Duties of Man to the Brute Creation" before the University of Cambridge, using biblical texts to argue that humans had duties towards animals. The sermon was later published in Three Discourses on the Case of the Animal Creation, and the Duties of Man to Them (1816). He also kept journals of eight tours through Britain between 1790 and 1800, selections from which were published in 1992 as James Plumptre's Britain: The Journals of a Tourist in the 1790s.

Life and career Plumptre was born at the President's Lodge, Queens' College, Cambridge, on 2 October 1771, the third son and tenth child of Robert Plumptre, president of Queens' College, and his wife, Anne Newcome. The writers Anne Plumptre and Annabella Plumptre were his elder sisters.

He was educated at Newcome's School at Hackney, where he participated in amateur theatre and developed an interest in drama. He entered Queens' College in 1788, matriculated in 1789 and transferred to Clare Hall in December 1790. He graduated B.A. in 1792, M.A. in 1795 and B.D. in 1808, and was elected a fellow of Clare in 1794. He was ordained deacon in 1794 and priest in 1796.

Plumptre began writing while associated with literary and theatrical circles in Enfield and Norwich. He acted in and wrote the prologue to Amelia Alderson's play Adelaide (1791). His comedy The Coventry Act was privately performed by Plumptre, his sisters and their friends in Norwich in 1792, and was professionally staged at the Norwich Theatre Royal and published the following year. His tragedy Osway followed in 1795, and his comic opera The Lakers in 1798. He regarded drama as a means of moral instruction and sought to reform the stage through works including Four Discourses Relating to the Stage (1809) and The English Drama Purified (1812), a three-volume collection of expurgated plays.

Between 1790 and 1800, Plumptre made eight tours through England, Scotland and Wales and kept journals of his travels. His 1799 tour lasted four and a half months and covered 2,236 miles, much of it on foot. He subsequently prepared a three-volume narrative of the journey for publication, but it remained unpublished during his lifetime. Selections from his travel journals were published by Ian Ousby in 1992 as James Plumptre's Britain: The Journals of a Tourist in the 1790s.

From 1797 to 1805, Plumptre served at Hinxton, formally as sequestrator and in effect as curate in charge. With the local squire Edward Green, he established a friendly society, promoted the use of Jenner's smallpox vaccine and organised gardening competitions. After Green's death in 1805, Plumptre returned to Cambridge. In May 1812 he became vicar of Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, where he remained for the rest of his life.

He married Elizabeth Robinson in Cambridge on 6 June 1815. Plumptre died at Great Gransden on 23 January 1832. He was initially buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew's Church. Elizabeth remained at Great Gransden until her death in 1836, and Plumptre's grave was later moved to join hers beside the outside wall of the church.

Animal protection and theology

Plumptre was among the English clergymen of the late eighteenth century who addressed human duties towards animals from the pulpit. On 8 May 1796, he preached before the University of Cambridge on "The Duties of Man to the Brute Creation", with Prince William of Gloucester among the audience. The sermon relied extensively on biblical texts. Citing the commandments that the Sabbath applied to cattle as well as humans, Plumptre described the use of horses on Sundays as a "national sin".

The sermon was poorly received; Plumptre later recalled that many listeners considered its subject trivial and unsuitable for the university pulpit. He attributed his choice of subject to repeated reading of William Cowper's The Task. David Perkins places Plumptre's sermon alongside those of James Granger and Humphry Primatt in the development of late eighteenth-century writing on the treatment of animals.

Plumptre's travel journals record a change in his own treatment of animals during the 1790s. In 1790 he participated in hare coursing, but by 1800 he wrote with regret about birds he had previously shot and had abandoned blood sports. Ousby relates this change to Plumptre's reading of Cowper and James Thomson and to the Evangelical campaign for the reform of manners.

In 1816, Plumptre published his 1796 sermon with two others as Three Discourses on the Case of the Animal Creation, and the Duties of Man to Them. In its foreword, he observed that public interest in the treatment of animals had increased since the original sermon. The same year he published The Experienced Butcher, which considered the religious and legal aspects of slaughter and the conduct of the butcher's trade. Plumptre's concern for animal suffering did not extend to vegetarianism; Ousby notes that he addressed arguments for vegetarianism made by Joseph Ritson and others in The Experienced Butcher and Three Discourses.

Plumptre also presented the Association for Promoting Rational Humanity towards the Animal Creation with his manuscript The Natural History of the Cat to be sold in aid of its funds. The Association advertised the manuscript as still unsold in its later prospectus.

Works Plumptre's publications included:

The Coventry Act: A Comedy (1793) Osway: A Tragedy (1795) Observations on Hamlet (1796) The Lakers: A Comic Opera (1798) A Collection of Songs, Moral, Sentimental, Instructive, and Amusing (1805) The Plague Stayed (1805) Four Discourses on Subjects Relating to the Amusement of the Stage (1809) The Vocal Repository (from 1809) An Inquiry into the Lawfulness of the Stage (1812) The English Drama Purified, 3 vols. (1812) The Experienced Butcher (1816) Three Discourses on the Case of the Animal Creation, and the Duties of Man to Them (1816) Original Dramas (1818) A Selection from Fables by John Gay (1823) Fables in Verse for the Female Sex (1825) One Hundred Fables in Verse, by Various Authors (1825) Robinson Crusoe, revised and corrected by Plumptre (1826) A Popular Commentary on the Bible, 2 vols. (1827)

Papers Plumptre's papers are held by Cambridge University Library. The collection includes drafts of plays, travel journals, diaries, notes on Great Gransden, correspondence and other notes. The library also holds a separate manuscript of his 1825 bowdlerised version of the Chester Mystery Plays.

See also Christianity and animal rights History of animal rights

References

Sources

Attribution

External links James Plumptre at Cambridge University Library James Plumptre at Early Modern Letters Online