John Horsley Palmer (7 July 1779 – 7 February 1858) was an English banker and

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...

Life

Palmer was the fourth son and seventh child of William Palmer of

Wanlip Wanlip is a small village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, with a population measured at 305 at the 2011 census. It is a countryside village, north of Birstall, and west of Watermead Country Park and the River So ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

(1748?–1821) and later of

Nazeing Park Nazeing is a village and parish in Essex, England. Within the parish are the separate settlements of Upper Nazeing, Middle Nazeing, and Lower Nazeing. The Prime Meridian passes to the west of Lower Nazeing. Location and topography Nazeing is ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, a London merchant, and his wife Mary Horsley (born 1747), daughter of John Horsley the rector of Thorley,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, and sister of

Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Soc ...

George Palmer (MP for South Essex) George Palmer (1772–1853) was an English businessman, politician, and philanthropist. Early life Born on 11 February 1772, he was the eldest son of William Palmer (1748?–1821), a London merchant, descended from the Palmers of Wanlip, Leices ...

was his elder brother, and William Jocelyn Palmer Sir Ralph Palmer were also brothers. He was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

where in 1794 he took part in the

first school cricket match Pupils of Westminster School and Charterhouse School played a cricket match in London on 5 August 1794 which was recorded in the earliest known scorecard of a schools match. Description A notebook compiled by G. B. Buckley held in the library at L ...

against

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. Palmer became a Director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

in 1811, remaining until 1857. He served as Deputy Governor of the bank from 1828 to 1830, and

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

from 1830 to 1833. In June 2020 the Bank of England issued a public apology for the involvement of Palmer, amongst other employees, in the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

following the investigation by the

Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, formerly the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership, is a research centre of University College, London (UCL) which focuses on revealing the impact of Britis ...

at UCL. In 1820, he purchased Hurlingham House in Fulham. He extended the property at Hurlingham by six acres, and let it to the brother of the Duke of Wellington. He was a member of

Political Economy Club The Political Economy Club is the world's oldest economics association founded by James Mill and a circle of friends in 1821 in London, for the purpose of coming to an agreement on the fundamental principles of political economy. David Ricardo, ...

and published several pamphlets including ''The Causes and Consequences of the Pressure Upon the Money-market'' . Palmer died aged 78 and was buried in Catacomb B at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

Family

Palmer married Elizabeth Belli, daughter of John Belli and Elizabeth Stuart Cockerell, on 16 November 1810. Her portrait was painted by

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

.Sothebys Portrait of Elizabeth, Mrs Horsley

References

1779 births 1858 deaths Governors of the Bank of England People educated at Charterhouse School Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Deputy Governors of the Bank of England British slave owners {{England-bio-stub