Philip PALMER

PALMER, PHILIP (b. England, 1799; d. Hobart, Tas, 21 May 1853). Anglican clergyman.

Of Cornish lesser gentry background, evangelical in churchmanship, and with an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge, Palmer came to VDL in 1833 as rural dean. His immediate pastoral responsibility extended to the penitentiary chapel ('Old Trinity Church'), and therefore work among the prisoners, and to St John's, Newtown. Governor George Arthur (q.v.) appointed him to the Legislative Council in place of the Rev William Bedford (q.v.). This was to be the start of an acrimonious contest between the two evangelicals (a well-publicised row, greatly relished by the less devout) for the prize of recognition as the colony's senior churchman. The dispute proved lengthy because both had powerful friends. Arthur favoured Palmer (whom he found congenially cooperative) while the senior Australian churchman, Archdeacon (later Bp) Broughton, tended to favour Bedford. The status issue was personally significant to Palmer and Bedford, but they were also pawns in an extended jurisdictional dispute between Arthur and Broughton. The contest between Palmer and Bedford was resolved, essentially in favour of neither, when Palmer's brother-in-law, William Hutchins (q.v.) arrived in VDL in 1837 as archdeacon.

Palmer at once ceased to be rural dean, and thereafter, apart from a return to England over 1845 to 1847, concentrated his efforts on pastoral work. In 1851, with other evangelicals, he signed the Solemn Declaration against Bp Nixon. Palmer was reputed to lack zeal and efficiency, but what standards apply? Palmer was an active promoter of the BFBS and the RTS, and played a large role in planning and raising funds for building his parish church, the very beautiful Holy Trinity, Hobart.

ADB 2; K R von Steiglitz (ed), Edward Markham's Voyage to Van Dieman's Land (Launceston, 1952); F Bowden and M Crawford, The Story of Trinity (Hobart, 1933); Hobart Town Advertiser, 24 May 1853

RICHARD ELY