Family and Education

b. ?1776, 1st surv. s. of Richard Power I*. educ. Trinity, Dublin 4 June 1792, aged 16. m. 1809, Dorothea, da. of Robert Shapland Carew*, 1s. d.v.p., 1da. suc. fa. 1814.

Offices Held

Biography

On the death of his ‘beloved and excellent’ father in March 1814, Power at once applied to the Duke of Devonshire to succeed to the county seat under his aegis, meaning to adopt the same line in politics as his father—those of opposition, in which he was confident that the duke coincided. His prompt action and popularity facilitated his return, after a contest in which he was also supported by the Catholic interest.1

Power was as good as his word and appeared regularly in the Whig lobby on all major issues, attending more often than his father, though equally silent in debate. He supported Catholic relief in 1815, 1816, 1817 and 1819, and was particularly staunch in favour of retrenchment. He opposed the suspension of habeas corpus in February 1817 and the aliens bill in 1816 and 1818, and voted for criminal law reform, 2 Mar. 1819. He evidently missed the early part of the sessions of 1816 and 1818 and the winter session of 1819-20. He had signed the requisition to Tierney to be leader of the Whig opposition in 1818. His last recorded votes before 1820 were against the Irish window tax, 5 May, and for burgh reform, 6 May 1819. He retired in 1830 and died in 1832 or 1833.2

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: P. J. Jupp

Notes

• 1. Chatsworth mss, Power to Devonshire, 21 Mar., Knowlton to same, 16 May 1814.
• 2. Cork Hist. and Arch. Soc. Jnl. (ser. 2), xlvii (1942), 121.