Palmer (Albert) is born in Candia, New Hampshire.

The son of a farmer and his wife, Albert Palmer graduates from Dartmouth College, moves to Boston in approximately 1855 to teach at Boston Latin School, and subsequently goes into business, organizing the Jamaica Pond Ice Company. A resident of 14 Forest Street, he serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1872-74) and Senate (1875-76, 1878-79), leaves the Republican Party for the Democratic Party in 1879, and serves as mayor of Boston (1883). He dies on May 21, 1887.