Thomas Wilde Powell (1818–1897) was an English solicitor and stockbroker, now remembered as a patron of architects and artists.
Early life
He was the son of James Powell, a bank clerk living in 1830 in
Briggate,
Leeds in Yorkshire, and his wife Christiana Wilde, daughter of Theophilus Wilde, He entered
Leeds Grammar School in early 1833, where the headmaster was Joseph Holmes, and his rival Edwin Gilpin, who became Archdeacon of Nova Scotia. He left in autumn 1833, and was articled to the Leeds solicitors Atkinson, Dibb, and Bolland, working for five years under
Thomas Townend Dibb.[1][2][3][4] At this period he became a Sunday school teacher for
William Sinclair at
St George's Church, Leeds.[5]
After his five years working for his articles were up, Powell stayed at Atkinson, Dibb, and Bolland for two further years, on a salary. In early 1842 he passed his qualification examination, and set up on his own in
Albion Street, Leeds, as a solicitor. Shortly, in partnership with Frederick Heycock, he used a back room there to deal in railway shares. At the height of the
Railway Mania, in 1845, on Powell's own account, Heycock found the stress too much. Powell successfully saw through the dealings on his own, and bought Heycock out.[6]
He is recorded in 1846 as a solicitor living in Headingley Terrace, Leeds.[7] In 1847 he was still in practice at Albion Court.[1]
Closing down his stockbroking business, Powell spent some time in 1849 with family at Holme Lodge in
Swaledale, a few miles from
Thirsk. He started to be approached by activist investors. A group from Leeds asked him to implement change in a London gas company.
Charles Swainson wanted him to restrain his son-in-law
Ralph Ward Jackson in the development of
West Hartlepool: but from a base at
Seaton Carew he concluded that Jackson was "beyond my control (or anyone else's)."[8]
London stockbroker
Marriage in 1852 brought Powell into the London stockbrokers Marten & Heseltine. He became senior partner there in 1872, when they traded as Heseltine, Powell & Co.[9]
When the
Reading Railroad's financial troubles came to a head in 1880, Powell corresponded with
Franklin B. Gowen, on behalf of the committee of London bondholders chaired by
Lord Cairns.[14] The series of letters with Powell in Philadelphia was published shortly. Powell was acting largely for McCalmont Brothers & Co. of London, who had acquired a controlling interest the Railroad, and had fallen out with Gowen in mid-1880, leading to his temporary departure.[15][16] Discussions between Gowen and Powell foundered on the composition of an American committee, on which Gowen wished to have a number of the Railroad's current board. Powell brought up matters of outside dealings of
Adolph E. Borie, and his brother-in-law H. Pratt McKean, and Gowen was unable to accept the imputations of dishonesty in these supporters.[17]
With other bankers and financiers, Heseltine, Powell & Co. acquired natural resources in the industrialising
West Virginia.[18]
It has been commented that its activities came close in some cases to that of
merchant banker.[19]
Later life
Powell was a major shareholder in the Western Australian Land Company. He travelled to
Western Australia in 1889. He had bought there the Eastwood Estate, of 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) near
Lakeside (now Ellerker), west of
Albany. He also acquired another large tract of land.[20] Powell had imported two
steam ploughs on SS Nairnshire, and set them to work on his estate in November 1889.[21][22] They were manufactured by
John Fowler & Co. of Leeds. They were unskillfully employed, however, and the crops failed to yield.[23]
At his death, the estate of Thomas Wilde Powell was valued at £195,508.[24]
Art and architecture
Influenced by John Postle Heseltine, Powell began to collect fine art.[25] He also commissioned a number of buildings:
"Piccard's Rough" in
Guildford, from
Richard Norman Shaw: it became his home. Rowe also designed for Powell Hitherbury House and other houses nearby.[26][27]
Powell married in 1852 Mary Elizabeth Marten (1826–1871), daughter of Charles Marten (1797–1851) and his wife Hannah Watson (1798–1881), daughter of Joseph Watson of Highbury.[29] Charles W. Marten was a founder of Marten & Heseltine in 1848, with Edward Heseltine, and Powell had used the company as London agents from his days in Leeds.[11][30]
Rosamond Emma Powell, married 1894 William Alfred Wills, M.D.[45]
Herbert Andrews Powell (born 1863), physician. He graduated B.A. at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1885.[46][47] At Oxford he knew
Henry Newbolt, who visited the Powell family around 1882, finding them "a special kind of civilisation", and the father "Olympian", terminating a dance at 1 a.m. and switching off the lights.[48]
Agnes Margaret Powell (1866–1918), married 1889 Charles Wolryche Dixon: he was the second son of
George Dixon.[49][50][51] She wrote The Canteeners (1917), a memoir of her
Red Cross experiences in World War I.[52]
Theodora Powell (1871–1920), studied at Somerville Hall.[53][54]
^Mary Lago, Christiana Herringham and the National Art Collections Fund, The Burlington Magazine Vol. 135, No. 1080 (Mar., 1993), pp. 202–211, at p. 202. Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
JSTOR885486