In early life a great gamester and a notorious libertine, known as Long
Palmer, on account of his height, and Busking Palmer--a term about
equivalent to the modern "dandy." He generally signs his name as above,
but upon one occasion, "Thomas de Palmer." He was at one time in the
service of the Lord Privy Seal, Cromwell; and was one of the "gentlemen
ushers daily wayters" at Court, before 1522; for three years he was
knight porter at Calais. The part he took against the Gospellers during
the Calais persecution is alluded to by Foxe (A. and M., five, 497, 505,
506, 520), and will be found fully detailed in my previous volume,
"Isoult Barry of Wynscote." At the sorrowful time of Lord Lisle's
arrest, his friend Palmer was jousting at Court. Edward Underhill names
him as one of those "companions" with whom he was "conversant a while,
until I fell to reading the Scriptures and following the preachers." In
the army of Boulogne, 1544, Palmer was one of the captains of the
infantry, and was taken prisoner by the French. We meet with him next,
October 7, 1551, when "Sir Thomas Paulmer" writes Edward the Sixth (and
another hand has interlined, "Hating the Duke and hated of him"), "came
to the Duke of Northumberland to deliver him his cheine... whereupon, in
my Lord's garden, he declared a conspiracy," evolved out of his inner
consciousness, of which Somerset was the supposed inventor and real
victim. On the 16th, conspirators and informer were impartially
arrested, Palmer "on the terrace walking there." To Somerset, Palmer
had denied every word he had uttered, when the Duke sent for him and
charged him with the uttering: on the trial he was the principal
witness, though the Duke denied his accusation, and "declared all the
ill he could devise of Palmer." It was not necessary to "devise" much.
It was soon plain that Palmer's arrest was a mere farce. He was not
only released, but was appointed, March 4, 1552, one of the
commissioners to treat with Scotland. In 1553 he proved true to his
friend Northumberland, and shared his fate. Two versions of his dying
speech are given, in the Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pages
22-24.
Lisle Papers, two, 125; nine, 10; seventeen, 94;--Cott. Ms., Nero, c.
ten, 40, 41, 44-46, 51;--Harl. Mss., 69, folio 50; 283, folio 3; 425,
folio 93;--Rutland Papers, page 102.