John Palmer

• Born : 1783 or 28 January 1785
• Died : 23 August 1846

John Palmer was a native of Bishop Middleham, Durham. A manuscript leaf in his handwriting states that:

.. in February 1804, Mr Palmer removed from his native place to Scoon Palace, near the city of Perth, in Scotland, when he was nineteen years of age.  At Scoon Palace he remained nearly three years, during which time he learned the rudiments of architecture, while that palace was in progress of rebuilding.   From Scoon he went to London, and remained there about two years.; hence in March 1808 he went to Yarmouth, in Norfolk, and remained there during the time the Naval Hospital was erecting at that place.  While he remained at Yarmouth he married Miss Smith of Norwich; and in the spring of I811 he again returned to London; and after continuing there upwards of two years, he removed to Manchester in August 1813.  In 1814 he commenced the restoration of the window in Strangeways Chapel, within the Collegiate Church, Manchester; and from time to time continued the restoration of the fabric of the church for some years. The Catholic Chapel in Granby Row was not only designed by him, but executed under his superintendence." 

Palmer had antiquarian interests which found expression in a book entitled The History of the Siege of Manchester by the Kings Forces (1822) and his Guide to the Collegiate Church of Manchester: Manchester (1829). With Dr. S. Hibbert-Ware and W R Whatton he collaborated in writing a History of the Foundations in Manchester (1834) to which he contributed the detailed description of the Collegiate Church in volume ii. Some of his papers and antiquarian collections are in the Chetham Library and Manchester Central Library.

John Palmer died on 23 August 1846, at Chorlton‑on‑Medlock. The following inscription was copied from his gravestone (in St Augustine’s RC Chapel, Granby Row, Manchester)

Johannes Palmer, architecta, obiit die 23 mensis Augusti 1846 anno, aetatis suae 63
Also of Harriet, wife of the above John Palmer who departed this life September 28 1852, aged 63 years
[Richard Wright Proctor Memorials of Manchester Streets, Manchester 1874, Page 191‑2; ]

Address   
1824        37 Granby Row
1841        38, Clarendon Street Chorlton-on-Medlock (Slaters Directory 1841) Clarendon Street north of All Saints - now under Mancunian Way

Reference : Colvin
Reference : Gillow     Biographical Dictionary of English Catholics 1885 v 238-9