Thomas Fyshe Palmer
Thomas Fyshe Palmer (1747–1802) was an English Unitarian minister, political reformer and convict.
Early life
Palmer was born in Ickwell, Bedfordshire, England, the son of Henry Fyshe who assumed the added name of Palmer because of an inheritance, and Elizabeth, daughter of James Ingram of Barnet.
Palmer was educated at Eton College and Queens' College, Cambridge from 1765, with the purpose of taking holy orders in the Church of England. He graduated B.A. in 1769, M.A. in 1772, and BD in 1781.[1] He obtained a fellowship of Queens' in 1781, and officiated for a year as curate at Leatherhead, Surrey. While at Leatherhead he was introduced to Samuel Johnson, and dined with him in London; but he had become disillusioned with some aspects of the Church of England.[2]
Unitarian
Palmer then read in Joseph Priestley's works, and became a Unitarian. For the next ten years Palmer preached Unitarianism to congregations in Dundee and other Scottish towns. A Unitarian society had been founded by William Christie, a merchant, at Montrose, and Palmer offered his services as a preacher (14 July 1783). In November 1783 Palmer reached Montrose, and remained as Christie's colleague till May 1785. He then moved to Dundee to become pastor of a new Unitarian society there, and he founded a Unitarian church. He preached also in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Arbroath, and Forfar, and formed further Unitarian societies. In 1789 he took temporary charge of the society at Newcastle. In 1792 his sermons in Edinburgh attracted attention, and pamphlets were published in refutation of his doctrines.[2]
Activism and trial
When agitation for political reform began in 1792, Dundee became one of its centres in Scotland. A society called the 'Friends of Liberty' was formed in 1793, and met in the Berean meeting-house in the Methodist Close, beside the house where Palmer lived in the Overgait. The society was composed mainly of working men. One evening in June 1793 Palmer was attended a meeting, when George Mealmaker, weaver in Dundee, brought a draft of an address to the public which he purposed circulating as a handbill. Palmer revised it, modifying it to a complaint against the government for war taxation, and a claim for universal suffrage and short parliaments. The address was sent to be printed in Edinburgh in July 1793. The authorities were alarmed, and decided to meet an anticipated revolution in time; and, in the belief that they were attacking a revolutionary leader, Palmer was arrested in Edinburgh on 2 August on a charge of sedition as the author of the document.[2]
At the preliminary legal inquiry he refused to answer the questions put to him, pleading his ignorance of Scots law. He was confined in Edinburgh gaol, but afterwards freed on bail. An indictment was served on him directing him to appear at the circuit court,
Both the judges summed up adversely, and, when the jury found the accused guilty, he was sentenced to seven years'
Transportation
Palmer was detained in Perth Tolbooth for three months, then taken to London and placed on the hulk Stanislaus at
Whilst serving his seven-year sentence in Sydney Palmer did not suffer the usual convict restraint, and he engaged in business enterprises. Besides cultivating the land, the exiled reformers constructed a small vessel, and traded to Norfolk Island. At the end of 1799 Palmer and his friend James Ellis—who had followed him from Dundee as a colonist—combined with others to purchase a vessel in which they might return home, when Palmer's sentence expired in September 1800.[2]
Journey and death
Palmer and Ellis intended to trade on the homeward way, and provisioned their vessel for six months; but their hopes of securing cargo in
Adverse storms drove them about the Pacific until their provisions were exhausted, and they were compelled to put in at
A monument was erected in the
, LondonWorks
Palmer's publications were mostly magazine articles and pamphlets. To the Theological Repository he contributed regularly in 1789–90, as Anglo-Scotus. In 1792 he published a controversial pamphlet entitled An Attempt to refute a Sermon by H. D. Inglis on the Godhead of Jesus Christ, and to restore the long-lost Truth of the First Commandment, against Henry David Inglis (1757–1806). His Narrative of the Sufferings of T. F. Palmer and W. Skirving was published in 1797. Several of his letters were published in the biographies of contemporary unitarians.[2]
Family
His nephew, Charles Fyshe Palmer visited his Uncle in the prison hulk at Woolwich in 1794, was Member of Parliament for Reading from 1818 to 1834, when he retired.[2]
See also
References
- John Earnshaw, 'Palmer, Thomas Fyshe (1747–1802)', MUP, 1967, pp 312–313.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Palmer, Thomas Fyshe". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.