Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, John Horsley
PALMER, JOHN HORSLEY (1779–1858), governor of the Bank of England, born on 7 July 1779, was the fourth son of William Palmer of Nazeing Park, Essex, merchant of London, magistrate and high sheriff of Essex, by his wife Mary, only daughter of John Horsley, rector of Thorley, Hertfordshire, and Newington Butts, and sister of Bishop Samuel Horsley. One brother, the Rev. William Jocelyn Palmer, was father of Roundell Palmer, first earl of Selborne [q. v.] Another brother, George Palmer [q. v.] entered into partnership with him and Captain Wilson as East India merchants and shipowners in 1802. Elected a director of the Bank of England in 1811, and governor from 1830 to 1832, he was one of the leading authorities of the time on currency and finance. In 1832 he gave evidence before the committee of secrecy on the Bank of England charter when he explained the causes of the panic of 1825, and the principle by which the bank regulated its issues (Report, pp. 7–70). He supplemented his arguments before the committee with ‘The Causes and Consequences of the Pressure upon the Money Market; with a Statement of the Action of the Bank of England from 1 Oct. 1833 to 27 Dec. 1836,’ London, 1837, 8vo. This important pamphlet, which is still of considerable value, called forth replies from Samuel Jones Loyd (afterwards Lord Overstone) [q. v.], Samson Ricardo, and other writers. Palmer then published his ‘Reply to the Reflections … of Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd on the Pamphlet entitled “Causes and Consequences,”’ &c., London, 1837, 8vo. This controversy did much to establish his reputation. On 4 Dec. 1839 he was appointed a member of the royal commission on bankruptcy and insolvency. In 1840 he was examined at great length by the select committee on banks of issue (Report, pp. 103–41). When he retired from active business, in April 1857, he was senior director of the Bank of England. He died at Hurlingham, Middlesex, on 7 Feb. 1858.
Palmer married, first, in November 1810, Elizabeth, daughter of John Belli, and sister-in-law of Archbishop Howley, by whom he had issue three sons and three daughters. On her death, on 22 June 1839, he married, secondly, on 8 July 1841, at Lambeth Palace, Jane Louisa, fifth daughter of Samuel Pepys Cockerell of Westbourne, Middlesex. She died without issue on 13 Oct. 1865. In addition to the pamphlets mentioned above, Palmer published ‘Reasons against the proposed Indian Joint-Stock Bank, in a Letter to G. G. de H. Larpent, Esq.,’ London, 1836, 8vo.
[Burke's Peerage, s.v. ‘Selborne;’ Gent. Mag. 1832 ii. 171, 1840 i. 83, 1841 ii. 313, 1858 i. 341; Bankers' Mag. 1858, p. 268; Maclaren's History of the Currency, pp. 173–8; Francis's History of the Bank of England, i. 346, ii. 62, 132; Gilbart's Works, iv. pp. 257–9, 277, 278; M'Culloch's Literature of Political Economy, pp. 181, 182.]