#14631, Edward PALIN

Edward's father was Richard Palin (c1799-1864) of Artillery Place West, Bunhill Row, Islington, London and his mother was Sophia Freeman.  Edward had a sister Eleanor Palin who married Harry Gurney.  Richard was a storehouse clerk, scion of a long-standing Cheshire family.  He and Sophie were amongst the first to be buried in Highgate Cemetery where their grave is next to that of the family of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Edward was a talented and assiduous student who won a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford where he gained a first in 'Greats.'  A logical step for such a student was to become a Fellow but in an age when education and religion were inextricably entwined this required the taking of Holy Orders.  In 1859 he becomes a Bachelor of Divinity and finds himself perpetual curate of St. John the Baptist, Summertown in addition to his duties as a fellow.  He is, of course, required to remain celibate.

In pursuit of the 'Muscular Christianity' popularised by Thomas Arnold, Edward set out for a walking summer holiday in Europe.  In the Czechoslovak town of Stachelberg (made famous at the start of WWII) he met Caroline Watson and her 'adopted' daughter Brita Gallagher.  Caroline was a well-to-do well educated American who had ensured that her charge, Brita, who was born in Ireland, also received the best of educations.  The attraction to Brita was quickly manifest, but celibate Edward was by this time Senior Bursar at St. John's.  In 1865, three years after meeting Brita he made his decision.  He was appointed to the living of St. Mary's in Linton which was in the gift of his college.

Edward and Brita were married in the English Episcopal Chapel at the British Embassy in Paris in the presence of Caroline Watson, Henry Palin Gurney (1847-1904)(son of Harry) and Archer Gurney who was the brother of Henry Archer who had married Edward Palin's sister, Eleanor.  Archer Thompson Gurney (1820-1887) was chaplain to the Court Chapel in Paris from 1858 to 1871.  He was known as a poet and theologian.  Edward was unquestionably a good parish priest.  He built a new vicarage, endowed a new school and constructed an improved water supply for the village.  He preached wholeheartedly, educated his sons at Shrewsbury in accordance with family tradition but sadly lost his middle boy to Typhoid.  His parishioners gave him a valuable ink stand as a mark of the affection and respect in which he was held.  He died in November 1903 following an amputation of his gangrenous left leg.