begun, his influence over it was small. His individualist political opinions and the neo-malthusian propaganda which he had carried on by correspondence and conversation for nearly twenty years made Feargus O'Connor [q. v.], James [Bronterre] O'Brien [q. v.], and the other leaders of the chartists in the northern and midland counties hate him nearly as much as he hated them. At the same time being thoroughly disgusted with the weakness of Lord Melbourne's government after 1835, and with the refusal of the reformers in parliament (with the exception of Roebuck) to take up an independent attitude, he withdrew almost entirely from his parliamentary connection. The years between 1836 and 1839 were mostly spent on a long history of the Reform Bill, which remains (in manuscript) in the British Museum. In 1840 Place joined the Metropolitan Anti-Corn Law Association, and acted for some years as chairman of the weekly business committee. In 1844 he was attacked with what seems to have been a tumour on the brain, and, though he lived for ten more years, his health was always feeble. In 1851 he was separated from his second wife, and died in his eighty-third year, 1 Jan. 1854, at a house belonging to his daughters in Hammersmith.
From about 1814 till the time of his death Place carefully kept and indexed his political correspondence. In 1823, on the advice of Bentham, he commenced an autobiography which branched out into a series of long accounts of the corresponding society, the Westminster elections, the repeal of the anti-combination laws, and other political events in which he was concerned. All the accounts were illustrated by ‘guard books’ of documents. Seventy-one volumes of his manuscripts and materials are in the British Museum. The autobiography and letters are in the possession of his family.
It is difficult to convey the impression of almost incredible industry which one derives from a study of Place's manuscripts and correspondence. Through nearly the whole of his long life he began work at six in the morning, and sat often at his desk till late at night. That his political writings are not of greater value may be due partly to the fact that he did not get free from a very laborious and engrossing business till he was nearly fifty years old, partly to the fact that he habitually overworked, and was forced into a tired and mechanical style. His remains form an unequalled mine of information for the social history of this century, but he deserves to be remembered not so much for what he wrote as for what he did, and for the passionate sympathy and indomitable hope which was always the driving force of his activity.
[Place MSS. Brit. Museum, Add. MSS. 27789–27859; Principles of Population, 1822, and numerous pamphlets; Place Family papers; Bain's James Mill, pp. 77–9; Robert Owen's Autobiography, vol. i. a, p. 122; Webb's Hist. of Trade Unionism, chap. ii. For contemporary accounts of Place, besides that in the European Magazine (supra), see Chambers's Journal, 26 March 1836; Fraser's Mag. 1 April 1836 (with a portrait by Maclise); Monthly Mag., May 1836 (by ‘A. P.’ i.e. Richard Carlile); Northern Liberator, 30 Dec. 1837. A good appreciation of his life appeared in the Spectator of 7 Jan. 1854, and another in the Reasoner of 26 March 1854. A Life of Francis Place by Graham Wallas is in course of preparation.]
PLAMPIN, ROBERT (1762–1834), vice-admiral, born in 1762, son of John Plampin, of Chadacre Hall, Suffolk, where his family had been settled for more than two centuries, entered the navy in September 1775 on board the Renown, with Captain Francis Banks, and in her was actively engaged on the coast of North America during the opening years of the American war. On the death of Banks he was, in January 1778, discharged into the Chatham for a passage to England, whence, in July, he was sent out to join the Panther at Gibraltar [see Duff, Robert]. In February 1780 he was taken by Sir George Rodney into the Sandwich, and in her was present in the actions of 17 April, 15 and 19 May [see Rodney, George Brydges, Lord]. On 4 July 1780 he was appointed by Rodney acting-lieutenant of the Grafton, and, returning to England in the autumn of 1781, passed his examination on 15 Nov., and was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant on 3 Dec. During the rest of the war he was on the Newfoundland station in the Leocadia, which was paid off at the peace, and Plampin was placed on half-pay. In 1786 he went to France in order to study the language; and in 1787 to Holland to learn Dutch. During the armament of 1790 he was second lieutenant of the Brunswick with Sir Hyde Parker; at whose recommendation, based on his knowledge of the language and country, he was appointed in 1793 to a command in the squadron of gunboats equipping at Rotterdam for the defence of Willemstad, then besieged by the French under Dumouriez. When the siege was raised and the enemy retired from the country, the gunboats were dismantled, and Plampin, returning to England, joined the Princess Royal, on whose books he had been borne while with the Dutch gunboats. For this service he received from the States-
