Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/133

 the chief-justiceship of Chester, but held that office for a few months only. A baronetcy was conferred upon him on 7 June following. He retained the attorney-generalship until his death, which took place at his house in Hampstead on 5 May 1670. His remains were interred in the parish church, Carlton.

Palmer married Margaret, daughter of Sir Francis Moore, serjeant-at-law, of Fawley, Berkshire, and had issue by her four sons and three daughters.

Palmer edited, in 1633, the reports of his father-in-law, Sir Francis Moore [q. v.] A volume of cases partly drawn from Godfrey's manuscript ‘Reports’ (Lansdowne MS. 1080), appeared with judicial imprimatur, in 1678, as ‘Les Reports de Sir Gefrey Palmer, Chevalier et Baronet; Attorney-General a son tres excellent Majesty le Roy Charles le Second,’ London, fol. They consist of cases chiefly in the king's bench from 1619 to 1629, and are considered to be of respectable authority. Whether Palmer did more than edit them is doubtful.

Prefixed to some copies is a fine engraving by White of Palmer's portrait by Lely. Another portrait, by an unknown hand, was, in 1860, in the possession of Mr. G. L. Watson.

[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii. 61; Wotton's Baronetage, 1741, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 19; Granger's Biogr. Hist. Engl., 2nd edit., iii. 371; Bridges's Northamptonshire, ii. 292; Gardiner's Hist. Engl. ix. 287, x. 77, 79; Commons' Journals, ii. 81, 324, 335, v. 21; Dugdale's Orig. p. 222; Verney's Notes of Long Parl. (Camd. Soc.); Whitelocke's Mem. pp. 39, 125, 182, 338; Bramston's Autobiogr. (Camd. Soc.), p. 83; Clarendon's Rebellion, ed. Macray, 1888, bk. iii. § 106, bk. iv. §§ 52–8, 77n, bk. viii. §§ 211, 233, bk. ix. § 164; Clarendon's Life, ed. 1827, i. 67; Cal. Clarendon State Papers, i. 371, 445; Remembrancia, 1878, p. 205; Thurloe State Papers, i. 56, iii. 537; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. iv. 573, viii. 426–88; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1645–7 p. 486, 1650 pp. 537, 563, 566, 1655 pp. 204, 309, 588, 1659–67; Lansd. MS. 504, f. 75; Addit. MSS. 29550 ff. 52, 64, 29555 f. 27; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 153; Pepys's Diary, ed. Lord Braybrooke, i. 108, iv. 498; Wallace's Reporters, 1882, p. 224.]  PALMER, GEORGE (1772–1853), philanthropist, born on 11 Feb. 1772, was eldest son of William Palmer of Wanlip, Leicestershire, and of London, merchant (1768–1821), by Mary, the only daughter of John Horsley, rector of Thorley, Hertfordshire, and sister of Dr. Samuel Horsley, bishop of St. Asaph. John Horsley Palmer [q. v.] was his younger brother. George was educated at the Charterhouse, which he left to enter the naval service of the East India Company. He made his first voyage in the Carnatic in 1786. In 1788 the narrow escape from drowning of a boat's crew under his command directed his attention to the equilibrium of boats and the means of preventing them from sinking. When commander of the Boddam in 1796 he received a complimentary letter from the court of directors for his conduct in an encounter with four French frigates. Palmer's last voyage was made in 1799.

In 1802 he entered into partnership with his father and brother, Horsley Palmer, and Captain Wilson as East India merchants and shipowners at 28 Throgmorton Street, London. In 1821 he held the office of master of the Mercers' Company, and in that capacity he attended the lord mayor, who acted as chief butler at the coronation of George IV on 19 July 1821, carrying the maple cup from the throne (Times, 20 July 1821, p. 3).

In 1832 he was elected chairman of the General Shipowners' Society. He first became connected with the National Lifeboat Institution in 1826, and thenceforth devoted much time to its interests, and his plan of fitting lifeboats was adopted until 1858, when it was superseded by the system of self-righting lifeboats. Lifeboats on his plan were placed by the institution at more than twenty ports. He was deputy-chairman of the society for upwards of a quarter of a century, and never allowed any of his own ships to go to sea without providing them with the means of saving life. In February 1853 he resigned his office, when the committee voted him the gold medal with their special thanks on vellum.

In 1832, when South Shields became a parliamentary borough, he was a candidate in the conservative interest for its representation, but was not elected. He afterwards sat in parliament for the southern division of Essex from 1836 to 1847, being successful in three severely contested elections. In 1845, after encountering much opposition, he obtained legislative enactments prohibiting timber-laden vessels from carrying deck cargoes.

He served as sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1818, and afterwards as sheriff of Essex. For many years he supported at his own cost a corps of yeomanry, and acted as colonel of the corps. He died at Nazeing Park, Essex, on 12 May 1853, having married, on 29 Dec. 1795, Anna Maria, daughter of William Bund of Wick, Worcestershire. She died on 13 Oct. 1856, having had five children: George, born on 23 July 1799, captain West Essex Yeomanry; (1802–1858) [q. v.]; Francis, born 17 Sept. 1810, also a barrister, 5 May 1837; Anna Maria, who died young; and