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- Thomas Palmer (by 1520 - 1582), of Parham, Sussex, was an English politician.
He was the eldest son of Robert Palmer, merchant of London and Parham, Sussex.
He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel in March and October 1553, Sussex in 1554 and Guildford in 1559. He was a Justice of the Peace for Sussex from 1547 and was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex for 1559-60.
He married twice: firstly Griselda or Bridget, the daughter of John Caryll, serjeant-at-law of Warnham, with whom he had 3 daughters and secondly Katherine, the daughter of Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donats, Glamorgan, with whom he had 1 or 2 sons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Palmer_(died_1582)
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Constituency Dates
ARUNDEL Mar. 1553
ARUNDEL Oct. 1553
SUSSEX Apr. 1554
GUILDFORD 1559
Family and Education
b. by 1520, 1st s. of Robert Palmer of London and Parham by 1st w. Bridget, da. and coh. of John Wesse or West of Millington, Yorks.
m. (1) Bridget or Griselda da. of John Caryll of Warnham, Suss., 3da.;
(2) by 1557, Catherine, da. of Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donats, Glam., 1 or 2s.
suc. fa. May 1544. Kntd. 2 Oct. 1553.
Offices Held
J.p. Suss. 1547-61, q. 1562-d.; commr. relief 1550, musters, Chichester 1580; other commissions Suss. 1554-65; collector for loan 1562; sheriff, Surr. and Suss. 1559-60; dep. lt. Suss. 1569-82.
Biography
Thomas Palmer's father, an offspring of the family of Angmering, Sussex, bought the manor of Parham in 1540 and established a branch there. Palmer's early career is not easily disentangled from those of several namesakes. If his age was correctly stated at his father's inquisition he cannot have been the entrant of 1528 at Gray's Inn, but he was probably the servant of Cromwell's who carried letters to France and Calais in 1539 and who went to Winchester to hear a suspect preacher. He served in the Boulogne campaign of 1544 under his future master the 12th Earl of Arundel and alongside his cousin Sir Henry Palmer . His succession to Parham, and his purchase of two manors once the property of Holy Trinity college, Arundel, were followed by his appointment to the bench in 1547. His religious conservatism notwithstanding, he was to retain his place on it for the rest of his life. He was admitted to the Mercers' Company in 1555.
Palmer was clearly prepared to conform, but it was to the Earl of Arundel that he looked for immunity in times of stress and of advantage during the happier reign of Mary. In August 1553 Arundel sued to the Queen for Palmer's lease of a large area of marsh in east Sussex, and in 1555 the earl, as master forester of Petworth honor, appointed him keeper of River park and of all lodges in the honor; later in the reign Palmer bought Lurgashall manor and the lordship of Donnington, both of which formed part of the honor. He and Sir Thomas Stradling acted for Arundel in a land transaction, and during the earl's absence at Calais in 1555 they managed his affairs: by 1557 he and Stradling had become brothers-in-law.
It was as Arundel's nominee that Palmer sat in Parliament. The earl was released from his imprisonment as a supporter of the Protector Somerset in time to nominate Members for the Parliament of March in 1553, which Palmer sat for Arundel. His kinship with the Duke of Northumberland's henchman Sir Thomas Palmer may explain why a Catholic like Palmer was a Member of this hostile House. Re-elected to its more congenial successor, he was knighted by the earl, who had beyond lord steward of the Household, three days before the Parliament opened, although the return of 23 Sept. had styled him knight. Unlike his fellow-Member, the Norfolk lawyer Thomas Gawdy II, he did not oppose the initial measures towards reunion with Rome; nothing is known of his attitude towards the Act confirming the attainder of his dead cousin (1 Mary st. 2, c.16). Six months later he achieved his only knighthood of the shire, but for the three remaining Parliaments of the reign he was evidently passed over in favour of other clients of the earl. His last appearance was in 1559 for Guildford, a town of which Arundel was high steward.
Adjudged by Bishop Barlow in 1564 a 'faint furtherer' of religion, Palmer was unharmed by the subsequent misadventures of Arundel, and from 1569 he was a deputy lieutenant. He began to build Parham House in 1577 but did not live to see its completion, dying on or about 14 Apr. 1582. In the will which he had made on 24 Feb. 1580 he left small bequests to Parham church and Chichester cathedral, and to his sons-in-law John Leeds and Sir Thomas Palmer †. His lands and goods were divided between his wife and the 28 year-old son and heir William.
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/palmer-thomas-1520-82
(Bindoff, S.T., The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, Boydell and Brewer, 1982)
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Sir Thomas Palmer built the Elizabethan house at Parham. He was a Sussex man whose family came from Angmering, some six miles due south of Parham on the other side of the Downs. His father, Robert Palmer, had made his fortune as a London mercer, and acquired several Sussex manors at the Dissolution, choosing Parham as the family seat. He left the property to Thomas when he died in 1544. Work on the present house began in 1578 and the basic structure was probably completed in the early 1580s, when Thomas died. In 1595 the family leased Parham to Sir Thomas Bisshopp of Henfield and established their other house, Fairfield in Somerset, as their main seat. This portrait of Sir Thomas is kept there.
Parham Park
Parham Park is an Elizabethan house in Cootham, between Storrington and Pulborough, West Sussex, South East England, originally owned by the Monastery of Westminster and granted to Robert Palmer by King Henry VIII in 1540. The foundation stone was laid in 1577 by the two year old Thomas Palmer, and Parham has been a family home ever since. Now owned by a charitable trust, Parham House and Gardens are surrounded by some 875 acres (3.54 km2) of working agricultural and forestry land.
Parham Houseback
Prior to 1540 when King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their land, the area which is now Parham belonged to the Monastery of Westminster. Henry granted it to Robert Palmer, a London merchant who originally came from Sussex. Palmer and later his son, Sir Thomas Palmer, occupied the small house on the property for 37 years until the house was deemed too small for the family and a new house was begun in 1577. The cornerstone was laid by 2½-year-old Thomas Palmer, grandson of Sir Thomas. Throughout the house are remnants of the original 15th century construction that was incorporated into the new house. Little Thomas eventually inherited the house and became Sir Thomas also, but preferring a life at sea, he sold the house and property in 1601 to Sir Thomas Bysshopp. Eleven generations of the the Bysshopp family occupied Parham until the house was sold in 1922 to the Hon. Clive Pearson, whose descendants still occupy the house. The house, gardens and park are now owned by a charitable trust responsible for the maintenance of the property.
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1498 - 1582 (84 years)
