Thomas Palmer (died 1553)

Sir Thomas Palmer (died 1553) was an English soldier and courtier. His testimony was crucial in the final downfall of the Duke of Somerset in 1551–1552. Palmer was executed for his support of Lady Jane Grey in the succession crisis of 1553.

He was the youngest of the three sons of Sir Edward Palmer, by his wife, the sister and coheiress of Sir Richard Clement, of Ightham Mote, Kent. He was early attached to the court, and in 1515 he was serving at Tournai. On 28 April 1517 he was one of the feodaries of the honour of Richmond. The same year he became bailiff of the lordship of Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire. He was a gentleman-usher to King Henry VIII in 1519, and at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. On 22 August 1519 he was made overseer of petty customs, of the subsidy of tonnage and poundage, and regulator of the custom-house wherries; in 1521 he became surveyor of the lordship of Henley-in-Arden.

He served in the military expedition of 1523, and the same year had a grant of the manor of Pollicot, Buckinghamshire. The next year he had a further grant of ground in the parish of St Thomas the Apostle, London. On 10 November 1532 he was knighted at Calais, where he had become captain of Newenham Bridge. He was favourably noticed by Henry VIII, who played dice with him, and in 1533 he became knight-porter of Calais. He was taken prisoner by the French in an expedition from Guisnes, and had to ransom himself. He gave an account of this and other services to Thomas Cromwell in a letter of 1534. He acted as commissioner for Calais and its marches in 1535 in the collection of the tenths of spiritualities. Palmer was at the affair of the Bridge of Arde in 1540.

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