Herbert Palmer

Biography

Of an Anglo-Norman gentry family (descended from Sir Thomas Palmer of Wingham, Kent), Palmer trained at St John's Cambridge and was master of Queens' from 1644 (succeeding Edward Martin, who had been ejected). He was the Assembly's most disciplined catechist — his Memorials of Godliness and Christianity (1644) had been Parliament's recommended catechism before the Westminster work began, and An Endeavour of Making the Principles of Christian Religion Plaine and Easie (1640) was a model for the Q&A format the Catechisms would adopt. As first chair of the catechetical committee he drafted its initial framework for the Larger Catechism; some scholars assign him primary drafting credit for the Shorter Catechism's structure as well. He died young in August 1647 with the Larger Catechism still six months from completion; Tuckney succeeded him in the chair.

Principal works

• Memorials of Godliness and Christianity (1644)
• An Endeavour of Making the Principles of Christian Religion Plaine and Easie (1640)