Sir Francis Sharp Powell, 1st Baronet (29 June 1827 – 24 December 1911) was an English Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1863 and 1910. Powell was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Powell of Wigan and his wife Anne Wade, daughter of the Rev. T. Wade. He was educated at Uppingham School, Sedbergh School and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1853, and practised on the Northern Circuit. He was a J.P. for Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the 1857 general election Powell was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan, but was not re-elected in 1859. Later in that Parliament, he was elected at a by-election for Cambridge but lost the seat in the 1868 general election. He was re-elected in

1865 Events January–March * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at Broad Street (Manhattan), 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War : Sec ...

, and held the seat until his defeat at the 1868 general election He was next elected MP for Northern Division of West Riding, Yorkshire in 1872 but lost the seat in the 1874 general election. He was elected as MP for Wigan at a by-election in January 1881, but was unseated on account of corrupt practices at the election. He stood again for Wigan in the 1885 general election and was elected. He held the seat until the

January 1910 general election The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominat ...

. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Sanitation and was created a baronet of Horton Old Hall in 1892. Powell was a benefactor to Wigan and Sedbergh Schools and was chairman of the governors of Sedbergh for over 35 years. Powell was elected a member of the council of Selwyn College, Cambridge, in June 1902, and received the

freedom of the city The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

on 24 October 1902, ''″for eminent service rendered to the city during his career″''. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1904 to 1905. Powell died at Horton Old Hall, Yorkshire at the age of 84 and a statue of him stands in Mesnes Park in the centre of the town of Wigan. Powell married Anne Gregson of Toxteth Park, Liverpool in 1858. He had no heir to inherit the baronetcy which became extinct on his death.

Statue

Ernest Gillick's statue of Sir Francis Powell stands in Mesnes Park, Wigan. Erected in his home town in 1910, the statue is made from bronze, which after turning green in colour due to lack of treatment, was restored in 2012. The statue shows Powell sat in his office chair, deep in thought. It also shows his right leg crossing in front of his left, which makes his right shoe protrude out further than the statue's base. It has long been a long-standing superstition that the rubbing of Powell's protruding shoe will bring a person good luck. Local belief in this tale is so strong that the shoe of the statue was never allowed to turn green due to the constant rubbing by locals and tourists.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Francis 1827 births 1911 deaths People educated at Sedbergh School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Wigan Members of the Inner Temple