POWNEY, John (c.1646-84), of Old Windsor, Berks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

27 Feb. - 5 Apr. 1679
Oct. 1679 - 4 Nov. 1680

Family and Education

b. c.1646, o.s. of John Powney of Old Windsor by Elizabeth, da. and coh. of John West of Poplar, Mdx. educ. St. Edmund Hall, Oxf., matric. 3 May 1662, aged 16; M. Temple 1662, m. by 1669, Ann. da. of Robert Sontley of Marchwiel, Denb., 2s. 1da. suc. fa. 1679.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Berks. 1673-80, j.p. 1674-d.

Corporal, yeoman of the guard by 1679-d.; capt. 1 Ft. Gds. 1684-d.2

Biography

Powney’s ancestors were Berkshire yeomen in Tudor times. His great-grandfather held a lease of the rectorial manor of Old and New Windsor at the 1604 survey. The family played no known part in the Civil War. Powney’s father married an heiress; purveyor to the King after the Restoration, he was granted arms in 1662. Powney himself supplied the castle with hay, undertook construction work in the park, and held court office. At the first election of 1679 he was returned for Windsor with Sir John Ernle on the corporation franchise and marked on Huntingdon’s list as a government supporter. They were unseated on 5 Apr. when the House decided in favour of an inhabitant franchise. Powney was again elected in August, this time with John Carey, but when Parliament met it was resolved to exclude the castle servants by restricting the franchise to those who paid scot and lot, and he was again unseated. In 1682, when he drew up his will, he estimated his liabilities at £1,600 and his assets at £2,628, including £700 due from the crown for stock at Old Windsor and for ‘hay in the barn’. Only six days before his death he purchased a captaincy in the Guards. He died on 24 Feb. 1684, probably in a duel, and was buried at Old Windsor. His grandson represented Berkshire from 1739 to 1757.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. C., Kerry Hundred of Bray, 148; PCC 137 Hare.
  • 2. Bodl. Gough mss. Berks. 3/33 (Case of the Borough of New Windsor ).
  • 3. Kerry, 148; T. E. Harwood, Windsor Old and New, 300, 304, 305; Grantees of Arms (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 204; Case of the Borough of New Windsor; CJ, ix. 569, 585-6, 638, 646; PCC 137 Hare; HMC 7th Rep. 376; Ashmole, Berks. iii. 53.