Palgrave, Francis, Sir

Palgrave, Francis, Sir an English knight, distinguished alike as a zealous and intelligent antiquary and as a historian, was born of Jewish parentage, named Cohen, at London in 1788. Of his early childhood nothing is known beyond the fact that at the age of eight years he translated the Batrachomyomachia of Homer from a Latin version into French (1797, 4to). When Cohen joined the Christian Church we are not able to state, probably long before he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple (1827), and before having received the honor of knighthood (1832). Sir F. Palgrave was for many years deputy keeper of the Public Records of Britain (from about 1836). He died July 6, 1861. Of his many writings we will only mention the following: The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth; Anglo-Saxon Period, containing the AngloSaxon Policy and the Institutions arising out of Laws and Usages which prevailed before the Conquest (1832, 2 vols.): — The History of England; Anglo-Saxon Period (1831, 1850, 1868; vol. 21 of Murray's "Family Library"): — Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland and the Transactions between the Crowns of Scotland and England (1837): — Truths and Fictions of the Middle Ages: — The Merchant and the Friar (1837, 1844): — The History of Normandy and of England (1851, 1857, 1864, 4 vols.). Besides many other works, he wrote articles to the Lond. Quar. Rev. and other periodicals. His great merit, in his historic writings, consists in the extensive use made by him of original documents, by aid of which he not only himself very much enlarged our acquaintance with the history and social aspects of the Middle Ages, but pointed out to others the advantage to be derived from. a careful study of the original sources of information. See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Auth. s.v.; Edinb. Rev. July, 1832; January, 1852, p. 153; Hallam, Middle Ages, Preface to Sup. Notes, 1, 11 (New York, 1872); Smyth, Lectures on Modern History, lect. 8; Einb. Rev. 66, 36; Westminster Rev. July, 1857; (Lonldon) Athenceun, 1857, Feb. 28; North Amer. Rev. April, 1858; Margaliouth, Vestiges of the Historic Anglo-Hebrews in East Anglia (London, 1870), p. 105 sq.; Pick, in the Evangel. (Lutheran) Quar. Rev. July, 1876, p. 373.