David Thomas Powell

Who was David Thomas Powell?

David Thomas Powell was an English clergyman and antiquary.

Son of Thomas Powell of Tottenham, an occasional poet, Powell became a Lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons; he left a manuscript account of his 1794 experiences in Cork, Flanders and Brabant. He later entered Magdalen College, Oxford, receiving a B.C.L. in June 1805. He spent much of the rest of his life making heraldic and genealogical collections, and touring England and Wales to make watercolour sketches of churches and manor houses in over forty counties.

Powell died in 1848, and was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church, Loughton. In addition to his antiquarian material, Powell's library, sold by auction by Puttick and Simpson over three days, contained two ancient manuscripts sold for over £100 each: an illuminated book of hours, executed for George d'Egmont, and a psalter from the monastery of Farehow. Many of Powell's manuscripts are now in the British Library. Most of his wealth was left to the London Hospital, which used it to build a new Medical School in 1854.