Family and Education

b. c.1643, o.s. of Lord Henry Powlett of Amport by Lucy, da. of Sir George Philpot of Thruxton. m. lic. 20 May 1674, aged 31, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir Richard Norton, 2nd Bt., of Rotherfield Park, East Tisted, Hants., 1s. suc. fa. 1672, Sir John Norton, 3rd Bt. in Rotherfield estate 1687.1

Offices Held

Dep. lt. Hants. 1673-Apr. 1688, 1689-d.; commr. for wastes and spoils, New Forest 1676-80, assessment, Hants. 1677-80, Hants and Wilts. 1689-90; j.p. Hants. ?1678-80, by 1683-Apr. 1688, 1689-d.; capt. Calshot Castle 1689-d.2

Capt. Lord Belasyse’s Ft. 1673-4.

Biography

Powlett’s father, a younger brother of the 5th Marquess of Winchester, sat for Andover in 1626. A Royalist in the Civil War, and married to the daughter of a prominent recusant, he was listed in 1648 among those liable to sequestration, but it was not until the following year that he bought Amport, valued at £900 p.a., and he was never obliged to compound. Powlett presumably became a Protestant on his marriage, and was returned for Andover at both elections of 1679. Shaftesbury first marked him ‘base’, but changed it to ‘honest’. In the first Exclusion Parliament he was appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges, and he abstained from the division on the bill. He was given leave to go into the country on 26 May, and is said to have been removed from the commission of the peace. He left no trace on the records of the second Exclusion Parliament, and was defeated at the general election of 1681. He probably did not stand in and was dismissed from local office when he refused his assent to the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws. He regained his seat after another contest in 1689, but his only committee in the Convention was for the reversal of the judgment on Titus Oates. Though doubtless a Whig like his cousins, he was given leave to go into the country for three weeks for the recovery of his health on 18 Dec., and was not listed as a supporter of the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He died on 25 Feb. 1696. His son sat for Petersfield as a Whig from 1705 to 1734, and his grandson succeeded as twelfth Marquess of Winchester.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Paula Watson / John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Burke, Peerage (1959); CSP Dom. 1672-3, p. 488; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1029.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1672-3, p. 488; 1689-90, p. 185; Cal. Treas. Bks. v. 410; vi. 199.
• 3. Cal. Comm. Comp. 104; VCH Hants, iv. 339.