Herbert Palmer (Puritan)

Herbert Palmer (1601–1647) was an English Puritan clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, and President of Queens' College, Cambridge.

He is now remembered for his work on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and as a leading opponent of John Milton's divorce tracts.

[1] On the resignation of Thomas Turner, Laud, then Bishop of London, presented Palmer, at the instance of 'a great nobleman' to the rectory of Ashwell, Hertfordshire, in 1632.

Laud, at his trial a decade later, referred to this among other evidences of his impartial patronage of merit; he declined the religious ministrations of Palmer during his imprisonment in the Tower and at the block.

He moved to London, placing Ashwell in charge of John Crow, his half-brother, who became his successor (28 September 1647), and was ejected in 1662.

At the same time the entire fellowship of the college, strongly royalist, was expelled: Martin was already in the Tower of London.

[3] In his capacity as President Palmer was a disciplinarian, helped refugee students from Germany and Hungary, and gave benefactions to the college library.

[1] In the Westminster Assembly, of which he was one of the assessors pro tempore in January 1646[4] and September 1646,[5] he had much to do with the drawing up of the 'directory,' and was anxious for a clause about pastoral visitation, which was not inserted.

As regards ordination, he differed both from presbyterians and independents, holding (with Richard Baxter) that any company of ministers may ordain, and that designation to a congregation is unnecessary.

A portrait, in Samuel Clarke's Lives of Thirty-two English Divines (1677) shows an emaciated visage, sunk between his shoulders; he wears moustache and thin beard, skull-cap and ruff with academic gown, and leans on a cushion.

[1] Since a book by Alexander Grosart in the nineteenth century, a work on the "Christian Paradoxes" has usually been attributed to Palmer; formerly it was considered to be by Francis Bacon.