John Joseph Powell (1816 – 15 September 1891), was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, 1862–1865.

Life

He was the eldest son of Thomas Powell of Gloucester, and was born there on 3 September 1816. He entered

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

on 28 May 1842, was called to the bar on 16 April 1847, and went to the

Oxford circuit The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

. He became

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

on 3 February 1863, Bencher of his Inn on 13 November 1863, and Treasurer in 1876. Powell sat as MP for Gloucester February from 1862 to 1865, and unsuccessfully contested Weymouth in 1868, and Gloucester in 1874. He was Recorder of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

from 21 May 1864 to 1891, and a Judge of County Courts for the West Riding of Yorkshire (circuit No. 14) from 9 April 1884 until 1885, and Greenwich (circuit No. 47) October 1885 till his death. He died unmarried, suddenly, while on a visit at Widmore Lodge,

Bickley Bickley is a district and a local government electoral ward in South East London, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 10.4 miles (16.7 km) south east of Charing Cross, bordering Elmstead, London, Elmstead to the north, Chis ...

, on 15 September 1891, aged 75. William Retlaw Williams,''The Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester'' (1898); https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030494953#page/n229/mode/2up

Notes

1816 births 1891 deaths English barristers Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1859–1865 Members of Parliament for Gloucester {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub