Family and Situation
Charlotte Palmer née Jennings is the daughter of Mrs. Jennings and the late Mr. Jennings, making her the sister of Lady Middleton. Her father, we are told, “traded with success” in London, but that her mother was well-provided for, suggesting that she likely had a significant dowry, born from trade. We know, from time spent at Mrs. Jennings’ home, that Charlotte “spent seven years at a great school in town.”
Charlotte married Mr. Thomas Palmer, Esq. and, by the time the novel opens, is expecting her first child by him. We know that she was unwed during at least part of the last Season and that she has the baby in late February or early March, so the wedding much have occurred in mid-to-late Spring before the novel begins.
Mr. and Mrs. Palmer live at the stately home of Cleveland in Somersetshire. Mr. Palmer appears to be a gentleman and is campaigning for a seat in Parliament, suggesting good connections and some social aspirations. They also have a house in Hanover Square.
We know that Charlotte also has an uncle in Weymouth with whom she was visiting while her mother was at Barton Park in the fall. As Mrs. Jennings is also a “distant relation” of the Steele sisters, we can assume Charlotte is as well.
Connections
Charlotte is friends with a family called Weston who comes to stay with the Palmers in the autumn, shortly after Edward Ferrars’ visit to Barton Cottage.
Charlotte also mentions in passing that Sir John would have helped her secure Colonel Brandon for a husband if she had wanted him, suggesting that they were at least marginally acquainted. Likely this is borne through her visits to her sister at Barton -- in other contexts, we are led to believe that she knows Sir John quite well and that she had seen Barton Cottage before the Dashwoods moved in to it.
Appearance
The narrator tells us that “Mrs. Palmer was several years younger than Lady Middleton, and totally unlike her in every respect. She was short and plump, had a very pretty face, and the finest expression of good humour in it that could possibly be. Her manners were by no means so elegant as her sister's, but they were much more prepossessing. She came in with a smile, smiled all the time of her visit, except when she laughed, and smiled when she went away.” Later on, her brother-in-law Sir John Middleton describes her as “very pretty.”
Character
Early on, the first experience the Dashwoods have of Mrs. Palmer suggest that she “was strongly endowed by nature with a turn for being uniformly civil and happy, was hardly seated before her admiration of the parlour and every thing in it burst forth.” We are told constantly of her propensity to laugh and to approve to everything she sees. About her abilities as a hostess, we are told “Nothing was wanting on Mrs. Palmer's side that constant and friendly good humour could do, to make them feel themselves welcome. The openness and heartiness of her manner more than atoned for that want of recollection and elegance which made her often deficient in the forms of politeness; her kindness, recommended by so pretty a face, was engaging; her folly, though evident was not disgusting, because it was not conceited; and Elinor could have forgiven every thing but her laugh.”
In many respects, Mr. Palmer appears to be an unlikely match for this young woman as he is a dour and disapproving as she is cheerful and enthusiastic. However, various anecdotes suggest he may have a softer side -- including a story Charlotte tells about how he had surprised her with an invitation to Barton, allowing her to see her family. Charlotte calls him “quite rude” in company, but does not seem bothered by his behavior in the slightest.
Habits and Hobbies
When the Dashwood girls stay in her childhood bedroom, they discover “over the mantelpiece still hung a landscape in coloured silks of her performance, in proof of her having spent seven years at a great school in town to some effect.”
