The Plantagenets

From City News Notes and Queries (Reprinted from the “Manchester City News”) (1885), my great-great-great-great grandfather may make an appearance.

The late Mr. Shirley was in the habit of saying that the descendents of the Plantagenets must now be look for among the humbler classes of Englishment named Plant; and the Times, in reviewing a book on geneaology some time ago, said that a turnpike collector of that name in Buckinghamshire had derived in lineal descent from the royal family in the Plantagenet lines. Some hundred and fifty years ago [c. 1735] there was a William Plant living at Winsford, in this county (Cheshire), who also claimed a royal ancestry. In 1829 his grandson, Uriah Plant, published a curious volume of “the principal events” in his own life; a book rarely met with in these days, for it was of no public interest, although noticeable as having been printed at Middlewich.

We can only be thankful Middlewich printed it.

Five years earlier there’s this from the Stockport Advertiser Notes and Queries (10 November 1883):

In an old document now before me, I see the name of William Plant, of Winsford, in Cheshire, who also claimed a royal ancestry; and he had a son, Samuel Plant, who lived a hundred years ago at a place called Lach-Dennis, near Northwich, but who afterwards removed to Wincham. His fifth son, Urian Plant, published in 1829 a curious volume of “The Principal Events” in his own life; a book rarely met with in these days, for it was of no public interest, although noticeable as having been printed at Middlewich.

By an odd coincidence, we stayed overnight in Stockport before flying out of Manchester airport last October. Either the same person was writing and recycling responses to inquiries or we’ve got a 120-year-old case of plagarism on our hands (the earlier Stockport response begins with the bit about “Mr. Shirley” verbatim).

At least someone found it useful. From Jonathan Rose’s The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (2001):

Uriah Plant (b. 1786), a wheelwright’s son, affirmed that “My uncertainty about the truth of religion not only increased my sense of its importance … but gave me a habit of thinking, a love of reading, and a desire after knowledge.” As an office boy and bookkeeper in Leicester he organized a discussion group devoted to religion and, over six years, spent “only” £21 10s. 9d. on books, mostly second-hand. He fearlessly read across the spectrum of theological opinion, including The Age of Reason, and opposed the suppression of antireligious literature. Later he joined the Wesleyan Methodists without completely accepting their dogma, noting that Wesley in “The Witness of the Spirit” was rather more liberal than some of his followers.