Platt, Thomas Pell (Esq.)

Life and ministry

1798: Thomas Pell Platt was born in London.
His father was Thomas Platt (1760-1829), a solicitor.
His older brother, Sir Thomas Joshua Platt, was a judge.
Another brother, Rev George Platt, was a clergyman and a BFBS Life Governor by payment of his father’s bequest in 1829/30.

Study at Cambridge University
(1816-23)

Nov. 1816: Thomas Pell Platt was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge

1819: President of the Cambridge Union

1820: Fellow of Trinity College

1821: Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholar

1823: Graduated from Cambridge University with an MA

Work for the British and Foreign Bible Society, London
(1821-41)

1821: Thomas Pell Platt began editorial work for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

1822: Stay at Paris; survey of biblical manuscripts for a bilingual Ge’ez / Amharic edition of the Four Gospels

1823-31: Platt served as the Society’s Honorary Librarian.
(As a landowner, he did not have to take on a paid occupation.)

1823-29: As the Bible Society had not yet appointed a superintendent for the translation and literature department, Platt was also responsible for the Society’s general literary activities.

1825: Platt joined the Royal Asiatic Society as one of its earliest members. He served on the Society’s Oriental translations committee for many years (together with Prof. Edward B. Pusey of Oxford Univ.).

  • In 1834, Platt’s bilingual Ge’ez and English version of the Didascalia appeared in the 1st series of the Royal Asiatic Society’s Oriental Translation Fund.

1831: Platt and other members of the British and Foreign Bible Society resigned following the “Test and Prayer” controversy. They felt that the Society had become too open to the influence of dissenters, such as anti-Trinitarians.

Remaining years
(1831-52)

1831-44: Platt continued editorial work on the Amharic Holy Scriptures until the publication of the second edition of the full Bible.

1832: Appointed Justice of the Peace in the Holborn Division and at Hampstead (view archive record).

1839: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

1840: Travel to Cairo (the place where Abba Abraham translated the Bible into Amharic)

  • Returned to Europe with the freed Oromo teenager Oshuu Agaa via Triest, Vienna and Munich. In Munich, Oshuu Agaa worked for about 2 months as a resource person for the linguist Karl Tutschek.
  • Q: Are there any documents confirming Platt’s stay in Egypt (British Consul-General at that time: Sir George Lloyd Hodges)? Did he travel back to London via Paris?

October 1852: Having resided for decades in Childs Hill, Hampstead (now part of London), Platt died in Dulwich Hill, Surrey.

  • View last will of Thomas Pell Platt (signed March 1851)
  • Thomas Pell Platt left 3 children:
    • Anne _ _ (?) Platt and Mary E. Platt
    • Francis Thomas Platt (1834-1900; called to the Bar in 1860; Oxford circuit)
      • Francis Thomas Platt left at least 4 sons:
        John Arthur (admitted @ Cambridge in 1879), George F. (1881), Edward W. (1888) and Rowland C. (1896).

Further reading

» View bibliography