PLUMMER, Thomas (?1749-1818), of Camberwell, Surr.

Plummer’s origins are obscure, but by 1780 he was a merchant at 48 Lime Street, London. By 1793 he was a partner in the West Indian merchant firm of Plummer and Barham, then of 5 Billiter Square and subsequently of 2 Fen Court, Fenchurch Street, with Joseph Foster Barham. Much of their business correspondence survives and largely concerns shipments of rum.Bodl. Clarendon dep. C.361, 362. Plummer signed the London merchants’ loyal declaration of 1795 and subscribed £3,000 to the loyalty loan of 1797. His brother William was a Jamaican agent who seems to have included Lady Holland and William Beckford among his clients. In 1802 Plummer, assisted by local malcontents and in tandem with his son’s friend William Hunter, challenged the newly acquired interest of Sir William Manners at Ilchester. They espoused the independence of the borough and were successful, but were unseated for bribery on petition. Plummer, taken ill on his way to seek election had his canvass conducted by his son Thomas William, and regretted that he could not substitute him for himself: ‘at my time of life it would be less an object to succeed in such an attempt than with many’, he informed his partner, whose political line he adhered to.Ibid. C.362, Plummer to Foster Barham, 2 July 1802. He was never again in Parliament, but his elder son came into the next one and the younger son, John, sat in the Parliament of 1820.

By 1805 the firm of Plummer, Barham and Plummer had moved to 2 Philpot Lane, but they returned to Fenchurch Street in 1816.Plummer’s will (PCC 163 Cresswell) confirms these changes of business location taken from the directories. Plummer died 4 Apr. 1818 in his 69th year and was buried, at his own request, at Carshalton.G. B. Brightling, Carshalton, 72. He left £100 to the society for promoting religious knowledge among the poor and £100 for the relief of poor clergymen.