PALGRAVE, Sir Francis (1788-1861), historian, was born in London in July 1788, the son of Meyer Cohen, a Jew, and a wealthy member of the stock exchange. He was privately educated, and such was his capacity for languages that at the age of eight he translated the Latin version of the Frogs and Mice into French, which his father published in 1797 with a short preface. On account of the failure of his father’s fortunes in 1803 he was articled as clerk to a firm of solicitors, with whom he remained till 1822, acting for some years as their managing clerk, after which he took chambers in King’s Bench Walk, Temple, and was employed under the record commission. On his marriage in 1823 he obtained the royal permission to change his name from Cohen to Palgrave, the maiden name of his wife’s mother. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1827, and soon acquired a good practice in pedigree cases in the House of Lords. From an early period of his life he had devoted much attention to literary and antiquarian studies. In 1818 he edited a collection of Anglo-Norman chansons, and previous to his call to the bar contributed largely to the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. In 1831 he published the History of England, in the Family Library series, and in 1832 he brought out The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, and Observations on the Principles of New Municipal Corporations. The same year he received the honour of knighthood. In 1837 he published Merchant and Friar, an imaginary history of Marco Polo and Friar Bacon. On the reconstruction of the record commission service in 1838, he was appointed to the post of deputy-keeper. Under the sanction of Government he edited Rotuli Curiae Regis (2 vols., 1835) and Calendars and Inventories of the Exchequer (3 ...