The Palmer Family of Parham, Sussex

Sir Thomas Palmer built the Elizabethan house at Parham. He was a Sussex man whose family came from Angmering, some six miles due south of Parham on the other side of the Downs. His father, Robert Palmer, had made his fortune as a London mercer, and acquired several Sussex manors at the Dissolution, choosing Parham as the family seat. He left the property to Thomas when he died in 1544. Work on the present house began in 1578 and the basic structure was probably completed in the early 1580s, when Thomas died. In 1595 the family leased Parham to Sir Thomas Bisshopp of Henfield and established their other house, Fairfield in Somerset, as their main seat. This portrait of Sir Thomas is kept there.