Samuel Palmer

Samuel Palmer, Jr. (1805-1881), Romantic painter, was raised in a Baptist home, with considerable assistance from a Baptist nurse named Mary Ward. His father, Samuel Palmer, Sr. (1775-1848), had two brothers: Nathaniel (1774-1840) of Surrey Square and later Aldermanbury; and Edward (c. 1771-1831), a druggist in the City and later of Clapham. Samuel Palmer, Sr., married Martha Giles (1778-1817), daughter of William Giles of the Dean Street Baptist congregation, in October 1803 at St. Mary’s, Newington, Southwark. Samuel Palmer, Jr., was raised in the Baptist congregation in East Street, attending there with his family from his birth until 1819, when his father left the church over difficulties between the pastor and the deacons. By that time, the Palmers had moved from their home in Beckford Row, Walworth, to Houndsditch, across the Thames, and in 1820 settled for six years in Broad Street, where his father operated a bookshop. In 1819, young Samuel exhibited three paintings at the Royal Academy. Through his friend (and future father-in-law) John Linnell, Palmer met Crabb Robinson and William Blake, the artist. In 1826 he moved to the country at Shoreham in Kent. He married Hannah Linnell, daughter of John Linnell, and they joined the Anglican Church, much to the dismay of both parents.