William Palmer is a member of a wealthy family, and is thirty-one years
of age. He was educated for the medical profession, was a pupil at St.
Bartholemew’s Hospital, London, received the diploma of the Royal
College of Surgeons in 1846, and shortly afterwards settled at Rugeley,
his native place. He seems, however, to have paid more attention to the
“turf,” and what are commonly called sporting pursuits, than to his
profession, and to have confined his practice to his own family and
friends.
His name appears in the “London and Provincial Medical Directory” of
1851, and again in 1855, as that of one of the persons who had neglected
to inform the editor of that work of the nature of their qualifications.
He married, in 1847, Anne, the natural daughter of Col. William Brookes
and Mary Thornton, his housekeeper. Col. Brookes, who, after quitting
the East India service, took up his residence at Stafford, died in 1834,
leaving considerable property, and more than one natural child.
To Anne Thornton he bequeathed, by a will dated July 27, 1833, nine
houses at Stafford, besides land, and the interest of 20,000 sicca
rupees, for herself and her children, and appointed Dr. Edward Knight, a
physician of Stafford, and Mr. Dawson, her guardians and trustees. To
Mary Thornton, the mother of Anne, the colonel bequeathed certain
property, which was to pass to her daughter at the decease of the
mother. Mary Thornton departed this life--it is said, while a guest at
Mr. Palmer’s house,--in 1848 or 1849.
Now, although the will of Colonel Brookes would seem clear enough to
anyone who was ignorant of law, and although, in the present state of
the law, as we are informed, it would be sufficient, yet it was
discovered by the legal fraternity, some years since, that the language
conveying the bequest to Anne Thornton was not sufficiently forcible to
convey it to her absolutely, but only to give her a life interest in it,
insomuch as, at her decease, it was liable to be claimed by the
heir-at-law to Colonel Brookes.
Under these circumstances, there was nothing unnatural or unusual in the
idea that Palmer should insure his wife’s life, in order to protect
himself from the inevitable loss which must ensue in case of her
decease; and since her property consisted of seventeen acres of land,
valued at between £300 and £400 per acre, besides nine houses, and the
interest of the sicca rupees--probably altogether worth at least £400
per annum, upon which he had borrowed largely from his mother--there
could be no doubt of his having such an interest in his wife’s life as
would justify insurance.
Accordingly, in January, 1854, he insured her life for £3,000 in the
Norwich Union, and in March in the Sun for £5,000; there was also an
insurance in the Scottish Equitable for £5,000. Mrs. Palmer died on
September 29, 1854, leaving only one surviving child, a boy of seven
years; and, as if to justify the husband in effecting an insurance, an
action was brought within a month by Colonel Brookes’s heir-at-law, to
obtain possession of Mrs. Palmer’s property.
Palmer brought up the life policies on the Sun and Norwich Union on the
16th of October, 1854, and employed Mr. Pratt, the solicitor, to obtain
the money from the offices. Mr. Pratt, who seems to have acted with
entire _bona fides_, and the caution usual among lawyers, required to be
furnished with evidence of the husband’s pecuniary interest in his
wife’s life, took counsel’s opinion on every step, and obtained the
£8,000 from the offices on the 6th of February, 1855; strangely enough,
the £5,000 from the Scottish Equitable was paid through a banker unknown
to Pratt.
Great excitement prevailed in reference to the trial, and large bodies
of persons who could have no possible chance of admission crowded the
avenues of the court. Day after day notices have appeared in the papers,
that only those who had obtained tickets of admission from the Sheriffs
would be admitted; and the under-sheriffs very wisely adhered to that
determination. In consequence of their very excellent arrangements, the
Court was at no time inconveniently crowded. At ten o’clock the judges
appointed to try the case entered the Court, and took their seats on the
bench. They were Lord Campbell, the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s
Bench, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell.