Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/134

 Elizabeth, who, in 1830, married Robert Biddulph, M.P.

He was the author of ‘Memoir of a Chart from the Strait of Allass to the Island Bouro,’ 1799, and of ‘A New Plan for fitting all Boats so that they may be secure as Life Boats at the shortest notice,’ 1828.

[The Life Boat, or Journal of the National Shipwreck Institution, July 1853, pp. 28–32; Illustr. London News, 21 May 1853, p. 402; Gent. Mag., June 1853, pp. 656–7; Times, 24 Oct. 1872.]  PALMER, HENRY (d. 1611), naval commander, was of a family settled for some centuries at Snodland, near Rochester, whence they moved in the fifteenth century to Tottington by Aylesford. He is first mentioned as commanding a squadron of the queen's ships on the coast of Flanders in 1576. From that time he was constantly employed in the queen's service. In 1580 and following years he was a commissioner for the repair and maintenance of Dover harbour. In 1587 he had command of a squadron before Dunkirk, and in 1588, in the Antelope, commanded in the third post under Lord Henry Seymour in the Narrow Seas. When this squadron joined the fleet under the lord admiral before Calais on 27 July, Palmer was sent to Dover to order out vessels suitable to be used for fireships. Before these could be sent, fireships, hastily improvised, drove the enemy from their anchorage, and Palmer, rejoining Seymour, took a brilliant part in the battle off Gravelines on the 29th. When Seymour, with the squadron of the Narrow Seas, was ordered back from the pursuit of the Spaniards, Palmer returned with him, and continued with him and afterwards with the fleet till the end of the season. He remained in command of the winter guard on the coast of Flanders.

Through the next year he continued to command in the Narrow Seas, and in September convoyed the army across to Normandy. He was employed in similar service throughout the war, his squadron sometimes cruising as far as the coast of Cornwall, or even to Ireland, but remaining for the most part in the Narrow Seas, and in 1596 blockading Calais. On 20 Dec. 1598 he was appointed comptroller of the navy, in place of William Borough [q. v.], and in 1600 had command of the defences of the Thames. In 1601 he again commanded on the coast of Holland. After the peace he continued in the office of comptroller till his death. He died on 20 Nov. 1611 at Howlets in Bekesborne, an estate which he had bought. He was twice married: first to Jane, daughter of Edward Isaac, and widow of Nicholas Sidley; secondly, to Dorothy, daughter of — Scott, and widow of Thomas Hernden. By his first wife he had two sons, of whom the younger, Henry, succeeded his father as comptroller of the navy by a grant in reversion of 17 Aug. 1611. Howlets was left to Palmer's stepson, Isaac Sidley, who made it over to his half-brother Henry.

A portrait of Palmer, by Mark Gheeraerts the younger [q. v.], belonged to David Laing.

[Hasted's Hist. of Kent, ii. 191, iii. 715; Calendars of State Papers, Dom.; Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Navy Records Soc.)]  PALMER, HENRY SPENCER (1838–1893), major-general royal engineers, youngest son of Colonel John Freke Palmer of the East India Company's service, by his wife Jane, daughter of John James, esq., of Truro, Cornwall, and sister of Lieutenant-general Sir Henry James [q. v.] royal engineers, was born at Bangalore, Madras presidency, on 30 April 1838. He was educated at private schools at Bath, and by private tutors at Woolwich and Plumstead, and in January 1856 obtained admission to the practical class of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, at a public competition; he secured the seventh place among forty successful candidates, of whom he was the youngest. He was gazetted a lieutenant in the royal engineers on 20 Dec., and went to Chatham to go through the usual course of professional instruction. From Chatham he went to the southern district at the end of 1857, and was quartered at Portsmouth and in the Isle of Wight.

In October 1858 Palmer was appointed to the expedition to British Columbia under Colonel Richard Clement Moody [q. v.] The expedition was originated by Lord Lytton, then secretary of state for the colonies, and consisted of six officers and 150 picked artificers, surveyors, &c., from the royal engineers, with the double object of acting as a military force to preserve order and to carry out engineering works and surveys for the improvement of the newly created colony. During Palmer's service with the expedition he was actively engaged in making surveys and explorations, among them a reconnaissance survey of the famous Cariboo gold region in 1862, accomplished under great difficulties. In that year he and his party were only saved by his coolness and address, and his knowledge of the Indian character, from massacre by the Bella Coola Indians at North Bentinck arm. The reports and maps