Thomas Povey (1613/14 – in or before 1705) FRS, was a London merchant-politician. He was active in colonial affairs from the 1650s, but neutral enough in his politics to be named a member from 1660 of Charles II's Council for Foreign Plantations. A powerful figure in the not-yet professionalised First English Empire, he was both "England's first colonial civil servant" and at the same time "a typical office holder of the Restoration". Both Samuel Pepys and William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, railed at times against Povey's incompetence and maladministration.

Life

The son of

Justinian Povey Justinian Povey (d. 1652), held office as Auditor of the Exchequer and administrator for Anne of Denmark. Justinian Povey was the son of John Povey, an embroiderer in London. His sister Joan married William Angell, a fishmonger. A brother, John Pov ...

of London, he was educated at Gray's Inn. He was a cousin of Thomas Povey,

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts The lieutenant governor of Massachusetts is the first in the line to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor following the incapacitation of the Governor of Massachusetts. The constitutional honorific title for the office is His ...

, and of Sir

John Povey Sir John Povey (1621–1679) was an English-born judge who had a highly successful career in Ireland, holding office as Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) and subsequently as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland during the years 1673–9. Backgro ...

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

. Povey became Member of Parliament for

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

in 1646, Bossiney in 1659 and held under

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

a high post in the Office of Plantations. Following the Restoration, he was appointed in July 1660 Treasurer to the king's brother James, Duke of York, but with the Duke's affairs falling into confusion, Povey was relieved of his office, 27 July 1668, for a consideration of £2000. He was First Treasurer to the Lords Commissioner for

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

, a lucrative post in which he was followed by the conscientious Samuel Pepys, organiser of the English navy. Povey made an agreement with Pepys in 1665, touching the profits expected from that office by the 17th-century convention. Years later, in 1691, Povey brought suit against Pepys and William Hewer at the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equ ...

with reference to a breach of the agreement; it seems to have been settled out of court. Povey family interests in the English Caribbean were extensive: Thomas's brother Richard Povey looked after the family interests in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, where he was officially Commissioner General for Provisions, while another brother, William, attended to affairs in Barbados, where he was officially Provost-General. Povey was one of the original members of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in May 1663 and had acted in the interests of its less formalised predecessor at

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

. Povey proposed Samuel Pepys for membership on 8 February 1665.

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or ...

, a fellow member of the

, found Povey "a nice contriver of all elegancies and exceedingly formal". As a Fellow, Povey offered the Royal Society a dissertation in 1693 on the manufacture of brass. Povey presented a report on

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

Hôtel des Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...

, which Charles II emulated in the

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...

, under a Royal Warrant of 22 December 1681. Povey had apartments in

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. H ...

by virtue of his Crown posts. Robert Streater painted a ceiling in Povey's London house, on the west side of

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

; there

visited him in July 1664:

Went to see Mr Povey's elegant house in Lincolns-Inn-Fields , where the perspective in his court, painted by Streater, is indeed excellent, with the vases painted in imitation of porphy and fountains...

Pepys noted with approval Povey's neatly fitted up stables, lined with washable

Delft tile Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue ( nl, Delfts blauw) or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands ...

s. Povey also inherited from his father

Hounslow Priory Hounslow Priory was a priory in London, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the sou ...

, situated in a suburban village west of London; it was sold in 1671, and by the end of the 18th century only the chapel remained. He donated to the Royal Society the portrait that he asserted was of the historian

George Buchanan George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...

and by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

. In his court appointment as Master of Requests, 1675–85, he received petitions and presented them for consideration by the Privy Council. Povey advanced the early career of his nephew William Blathwayt, and it is surely due to his influence that his son-in-law Giles Bland was sent to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

as customs collector. Some of the paintings from Povey's collection, which hung in his London house or at Hounslow, remain in Blathwayt's house,

Dyrham Park Dyrham Park () is a baroque English country house in an ancient deer park near the village of Dyrham in South Gloucestershire, England. The house, attached orangery, stable block, and accompanying parish church are Grade I listed buildings, w ...

, Gloucestershire. Povey's letter books are conserved in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

.B.L. Add. Mss 11411.

Family

He married Mary, daughter of John Adderly and widow of John Agard of King's Bromley, Staffordshire. His daughter Sarah married another member of the Staffordshire gentry, Robert Leveson of Wolverhampton and had three sons, including the soldier and politician Richard Leveson. Another daughter Sarah married Giles Bland, who was executed for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

in Virginia in 1677, having played a leading part in Bacon's Rebellion the previous year.

Notes

External links

"The hostel of the Invalides by Thomas Povey"
(1682) (Lambeth Palace Library MS.745). I. ''Med Hist''. 1966 January; 10(1): 1–22. {{DEFAULTSORT:Povey, Thomas 1614 births 1700s deaths English MPs 1659 Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall Original Fellows of the Royal Society Merchants from London Members of Gray's Inn 17th-century English merchants 17th-century English lawyers