Author: Palmer, Roundell
Biography:
PALMER, Roundell (1812-95: ODNB)
One of ten children of Dorothea Richardson (Roundell) and Rev. William Jocelyn Palmer, he was born on 27 Nov. 1812 at the rectory at Mixbury, Oxfordshire, and baptised on 12 Dec. Educated at Rugby and Winchester, he went on to achieve outstanding results at Oxford, matriculating at Christ Church in May 1830 but awarded a scholarship at Trinity in Dec. 1830 (BA 1834) and a fellowship at Magdalen 1834-48. He won the Chancellor’s Prize for a Latin poem in 1831, the Newdigate Prize for poetry in English in 1832, and the Chancellor’s Prize for a Latin essay in 1835. Various honorary degrees came later. He chose the law over the church and was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1837 (bencher 1849, treasurer 1864). Building on his success as a lawyer in equity cases, he entered parliament as MP for Plymouth in 1847, a seat he held off and on for 12 years. His lucrative practice eventually enabled him to become a landowner like his father when he purchased an estate at Blackmoor, near Selborne, Hampshire, in 1865. On 2 Feb. 1848 he married Laura Waldegrave (d 1885), the daughter of an earl, at All Souls, Langham Place, London; they went on to have five children. In 1861 he returned to parliament as MP for the safe seat of Richmond in Yorkshire; in the same year he was knighted and appointed solicitor-general. He served as attorney-general from 1863 to 1866, until the defeat of his party, but returned as Baron Selborne and Lord Chancellor in 1872. Out of office for six years 1874-80, he returned again as Chancellor 1880-85 but refused a third term in 1886. He was created Earl of Selborne and Viscount Wolmer in 1883. He died at Blackmoor on 4 May 1895 and was buried at St. Matthew’s, Blackmoor. Significant later publications are the hymnal he edited, The Book of Praise (1862); the posthumously published Letters to His Son on Religion (1898); and an autobiography in four volumes (1896-98) entitled Memorials and edited by his daughter Sophia. (ODNB 12 Aug. 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; ancestry.com 12 Aug. 2023; findmypast.com 12 Aug. 2023) HJ