Palmqvist, along with his two brothers Johannes and Gustaf Palmquist, were early leaders of the Swedish Baptist movement in Sweden.

Per Palmqvist was born 8 April 1815 in Norra Solberga parish, Jönköping County, the son of churchwarden Sven Larsson and Helena Nilsdotter.

[1] Their home was of a Pietistic religious nature and the family visited influential revivalist preachers such as Pehr Nyman [sv], Peter Lorenz Sellergren, and Jacob Otto Hoof.

[3] The three brothers got to know leaders in the Swedish Nyevangelism ('New Evangelism') movement, including Scottish Methodist missionary George Scott and Carl Olof Rosenius and were greatly influenced by their teachings as well as by Finnish Lutheran priest Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg.

[2] The program had over 250 children and 20 to 30 teachers;[6] classes were taught by laypeople and included literacy training in addition to Bible lessons, singing, and prayer.

[7] Later that year, Palmqvist founded the first Sunday school within the Baptist movement in Sweden, inviting 25 local poor children.

[2][9] He published early Swedish Baptist preacher Anders Wiberg's work Det kristliga dopet ('the Christian Baptism').

[10][9] One of his most significant publications was Swedish missionary Peter Fjellstedt's Biblia, det är all den Heliga skrift, med förklaringar.

[2] His children included Gustaf (1859), Betty Augusta (1861), Per Gabriel (1865), Maria Helena Gustafva (1870), and Carl Hugo Natanael (1871).