biography text
Palk succeeded to the baronetcy in 1813, came of age the following year, but did not return himself for the family seat until the general election of 1818. He voted with government against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, and for the foreign enlistment bill, 23 June 1819, but is not known to have spoken in the House before 1820.
His financial inheritance was burdened by his father’s heavy investment in the family’s Torquay estate, but he continued the process. The Ashburton property, mortgaged to the tune of over £23,000, was eventually sold in the 1840s and Palk evidently spent most of his later years in France.2H. J. Hanham, Trans. Devon Assoc. xcviii (1966), 231, 240-1. He died 16 May 1860.