He was a gentleman of the chapel royal in Edward VI's reign, together with Thomas Tallis, Richard Farrant, William Hunnis, and others.
John Parkhurst, the bishop of Norwich, addressed an epigram to Palfreyman and Robert Couch jointly, and complimented them on their proficiency in music and theology.
Palfreyman seems to have lived in the London parish of St Peter, Cornhill.
The following works, all religious, are assigned to him: In 1567 Palfreyman revised and re-edited ‘A Treatise of Morall Philosophy, containynge the sayinges of the wyse,’ which William Baldwin had first published in 1547.
Palfreyman's version of 1567 is described as ‘nowe once again augmented and the third tyme enlarged.’ It was published by Richard Tottell on 1 July 1567, and was dedicated to Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon.