Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Palmer, Anthony (1618?-1679)
PALMER, ANTHONY (1618?–1679), ejected independent, son of Anthony Palmer, was born at Great Comberton, Worcestershire, about 1618. In 1634, at the age of sixteen, he became a student of Balliol College, Oxford, graduated B.A. on 7 April 1638, was admitted fellow on 29 Nov. 1640, and graduated M.A. on 16 Dec. 1641, taking orders shortly afterwards. He subscribed the league and covenant of 1643, but seems never to have been a presbyterian. In 1648 he signed the Gloucestershire ministers' testimony. In October 1649 he resigned the fellowship, took the engagement, and was admitted to the rectory of Bourton-on-the Water, Gloucestershire. He was one of the assistant commissioners for Gloucestershire to the ‘expurgators’ (appointed by ordinance of 28 Aug. 1654). Wood says he was ‘anabaptistically inclin'd,’ which means that, in accordance with the terms of his commission, baptists (who abounded in Gloucestershire) were not as such excluded from the ministry. At the Restoration he was driven from his rectory by royalists, and his goods were plundered. He put in a curate to do duty for him, ‘but he being disturbed, they got one to read the common prayer’ (Wood). He withdrew to London, and was ejected from his living by the Uniformity Act (1662). Wood says he was privy to the fanatical plot of November 1662, for which Thomas Tongue and others were tried on 11 Dec. and executed on 22 Dec.; but this is improbable. He gathered a congregational church at Pinners' Hall, Old Broad Street, where, on the indulgence of 1672, a joint lecture by presbyterian and congregational divines was established by London merchants. Palmer was not one of the lecturers. He was ‘of good ministerial abilities,’ according to Calamy. He died on 26 Jan. 1679, and was buried in the New Bethlehem graveyard, Moorfields (site in Liverpool Street, opposite the Broad Street railway station).
He published: 1. ‘The Saint's Posture in Dark Times,’ &c., 1650, 8vo. 2. ‘The Tempestuous Soul calmed,’ &c., 1653, 8vo; 1658, 8vo; 1673, 8vo. 3. ‘The Scripture Rail to the Lord's Table,’ &c., 1654, 8vo (against the ‘Humble Vindication,’ 1651, by John Humfrey [q. v.]) 4. ‘Memorials of Godliness and Christianity,’ &c., 12mo (Wood). 5. ‘The Christian's Freedom by Christ,’ &c., 12mo (Wood). 6. ‘The Gospel New Creature,’ &c., 1658, 8vo; 1674, 8vo.
Another Anthony Palmer (d. 1693) was admitted to the rectory of Bratton Fleming, Devonshire, about 1645, was ejected in 1662, and died in September 1693.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss) ii. 189, iii. 1192 sq., Fasti (Bliss), i. 500, ii. 3; Calamy's Abridgment, 1713 p. 305, Account, 1713 p. 316, Continuation, 1727, i. 53, 320 sq. 493; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, ii. 256 sq.]