U DDPA Papers of the Palmes Family of Naburn 13Th Cent
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Hull History Centre: Papers of the Palmes Family of Naburn U DDPA Papers of the Palmes Family of Naburn 13th cent. - 1906 Biographical Background: The Palmes family traced its pedigree back to Manfred Palmes who was living in 1140 and had lands in Taunton, Somerset. It is a family unique in being able to trace an unbroken inheritance from son to son from the twelfth century to 1974, with only one exception in the eighteenth century. In 1226 lands at Naburn in East Yorkshire were assigned to William Palmes by Richard de Watervill, the brother of Maud de Watervill, William Palmes's wife. The demesne lordship of Naburn then descended in the Palmes family to the twentieth century (Baines, Old Naburn, p. 45; Allison, History of York East Riding, iii, p. 77; Foster, Pedigrees, iii). Naburn is about three miles south of York and the Palmes family built a manor house on the east bank of the River Ouse. The house was first mentioned in 1345 and had eight hearths in 1672. A drawing of circa 1720 indicates a two storey house, three bays in length with attic windows in high gables. In other words, the family was comfortably-wealthy, although it was not until the early sixteenth century that any of the male members of the family held public office. William Palmes, who was living in the middle of the fifteenth century, married Ellen Rocliffe, whose father was one of the barons of the exchequer. She provided him with three male heirs and a daughter before taking the veil during his lifetime, in 1479. There are no personal papers surviving for the late middle ages, but the collection is unusual in being rich in estate papers, including early marriage settlements. However, many of the medieval papers are badly damaged by damp, probably because of the location of the family hall (Baines, Old Naburn, pedigree; Allison, History of York East Riding, iii, p. 77 citing BL Lansdowne MS 914 f. 31; Foster, Pedigrees, iii). The eldest son of William and Ellen Palmes was another William Palmes, whose first marriage to Eleanor Heslerton resulted in two sons who were the first to hold any major public office. Their youngest son, Guy Palmes was serjeant-at-law in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was a reader of the Middle Temple and died in 1516. His older brother, Brian Palmes was also a lawyer of the Middle Temple and became a justice on the assize circuit for the county of Lancaster. In 1496 Brian Palmes was recorder for the city of York and resigned the office in 1509 when he became a member of parliament. He married three time, leaving issue only by his second wife, and died in 1520. His three younger sons followed him into law and public office. His eldest son, Nicholas Palmes (d.1551), married twice and left a son, Brian Palmes (d.circa 1581), whose second wife, Anne, was the daughter of John Constable of Burton Constable. These two generations of the Palmes family were the first to be affected by the Reformation. Coming from a family who for several generations had been admitted of Corpus Christi, York, they were not swift to abandon their Catholicism and Brian Palmes was the first member of the family to be recorded as paying a recusancy fine in 1577. Unfortunately for the Palmes family they were rather visible, as Naburn Hall stood directly opposite the palace of the Archbishop of York on the River Ouse and they went on suffering fines for non-attendance at church until they changed religious allegiance in 1784. Until that time their Catholicism meant that half the village of Naburn was Catholic as well, while the other half of the village followed the Protestant example of the Baines family at Bell Hall (Allison, History of York East Riding, iii, p. 81; Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes-Lomax, 'The Palmes family', pp. 443-4). Catholicism excluded the Palmes family from public office and they seem to have retreated to their estates, though their pedigree indicates that they continued to marry well, usually to page 1 of 101 Hull History Centre: Papers of the Palmes Family of Naburn other large landed Catholic families like the Langdales and the Stapletons. Some younger members of the family became Jesuit priests. The eldest son of Brian Palmes and Anne Constable, John Palmes (alive 1584), 'did not go to church and entertained in his house instead of a gardiner an old renegade Scottish prattling priest'. His wife, Joan Dawnay, did the same and they purchased the estate that had belonged to the Guild of Corpus Christi. Their eldest son, George Palmes (d.1654) married Catherine Babthorpe whose brother and sister were both in the Benedictine order. One of their own daughters went to the Augustinian convent in Louvain. George Palmes was knighted by Charles I, probably for his royalist support during the 1640s. It is likely he was at Marston Moor, because a family ring, originally the property of Brian Palmes (d.1520), was later returned to the family from the site of the battle (Baines, Old Naburn, p. 47; Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes-Lomax, 'The Palmes family', pp. 446-8). The eldest son of George and Catherine Palmes, William Palmes (b. circa 1609), married Catherine Langdale and had six children. William Palmes died in 1674 and was succeeded by his eldest son, also William Palmes (b. 1639). William Palmes junior was married to Mary, sole heiress of Brian Stapleton, who was slain at Chester. William and Mary Palmes had eight children at least two of whom died as children. Mary died, possibly from childbirth in 1674. Their eldest son, Nicholas Palmes (b.1664) predeceased his father as a young man of twenty (d.1684) and William Palmes was succeeded by his second son, George Palmes (b.1666) when he died in 1686 (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes-Lomax, 'The Palmes family', p. 450). George Palmes was married to Anne Witham and the couple were responsible for harbouring several Catholic priests at the old manor house in Naburn in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, including Ann's brother, George Witham, for two years before he left for Rome. The other major family of Naburn, the Baines family (see DDBH), were nonconformist Protestant in their sympathies and hid presbyterian ministers in the cavities of their walls, so there can have been little love lost between the two families. George and Ann Palmes had nine children, though their eldest son died the day he was born and two more sons died in infancy. George Palmes was in ownership of Naburn Hall from 1686 until his death in 1732 when the estates passed to Brian Palmes (b.1696), who rebuilt the hall in the Georgian style before himself dying in 1737. He died without issue and the estates passed to George Palmes (b. circa 1727), eldest son of his brother, George Palmes, and Frances Plumpton. However, George Palmes and his wife, Catherine Heneaghe, had only a daughter who died an infant and the estates passed on his death in 1774 to his brother John Palmes (b.circa 1732), who was married to Susannah Wharrie (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes-Lomax, 'The Palmes family', p. 450; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, p. 617). John Palmes was a Catholic, but when he died in 1783 he left two young children and his wife brought them up as Protestants, so reversing over two hundred years of Catholic nonconformity. Their eldest son, George Palmes (b.1776), was, thus, the first member of the Palmes family to hold public office for ten generations and he became a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant of the East Riding. He married Margaret Isabella Lindsay, from Oatlands near Glasgow and they had five sons and four daughters. Their eldest son, Brian Palmes (b.circa 1811-12), and fourth son, Manfred Leslie Palmes (b.1821) died in Barbadoes and Trinidad respectively, in the same year - 1839 - and the only significant correspondence in the collection is the letters home of these two young men (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes- Lomax, 'The Palmes family', p. 450). George Palmes died in 1851 and was succeeded by his second son, William Lindsay Palmes (b.1813). He was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1831 and was page 2 of 101 Hull History Centre: Papers of the Palmes Family of Naburn awarded BA in 1836 and MA in 1839. He was an accomplished modern linguist and went into the church, being ordained a deacon at Winchester in 1844. He was temporarily in Jersey before being transferred to Bishopthorpe in Yorkshire in 1847 and gaining a living as vicar of Hornsea and Riston in 1848. He married Marianne Empson in 1849 and their eldest son, George Palmes, was born in the year he succeeded to the Naburn estates, in 1851. He followed his father's example and became a justice of the peace and was vicar of Naburn from 1873 until his death in 1888 (Baines, Old Naburn, pedigree; Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Trappes-Lomax, 'The Palmes family', p. 450; Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, II, v, p.17). William and Marianne Palmes had seven children and the eldest two sons followed their father into the church. George Palmes was admitted to Lincoln College, Oxford, being awarded BA in 1874 and MA in 1878, before getting his first living in Hill Farrance, Somerset. His brother, Arthur Lindsay Palmes (b.1853), was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford, gaining BA in 1877 and MA in 1879 before being given livings in Cornwall.