Bradford People: Septimus Henry Palairet
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Septimus Palairet (1807-1854) was an army Captain in the 29th Regiment, who retired and moved to Woolley House (now called Woolley Grange Hotel) in Bradford in 1846. Septimus was instrumental in getting his friend Stephen Moulton to set up his new rubber company in Bradford in 1848, putting money into the venture himself. The present appearance of Woolley Grange is largely due to his remodelling of the house. In 1847 he paid for building a new National School at Christ Church, Mount Pleasant, Bradford.
He married an American heiress, Mary Ann Hamilton (1822-1851), daughter of Andrew Hamilton (1766-1825), in 1843. Mary Ann died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1851, but there is a memorial window to her in Christ Church, Bradford. The east window of the church in Norton St Philip, Somerset, a work of Christopher Webb, is dedicated to Septimus and Mary Ann. Several of his family were living in Norton St Philip, Somerset in the later nineteenth century, where Rev Richard Palairet organised the restoration of the church, in which there are monuments to the family; the organ there was installed as a memorial to Rev R. Palairet and Rev. A. Palairet.
Their eldest son Henry Hamilton Palairet (1845-1923) played cricket for MCC and two of his sons, Lionel (1870-1933) and Richard (1871-1955) played for Somerset. Sir Michael Palairet (1882-1956), a diplomat who served as ambassador to Greece, was the son of Charles Harvey Palairet (born in Bradford in 1847), the second son of Septimus and Mary Ann.
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