Person:Morris Powell (4)

From Richard Williams' article in Montgomeryshire Worthies:

Thomas Powell was educated at Welshpool. Subsequently he was apprenticed to Mr. Watkins, an ironmonger at Shrewsbury, and, at the expiration of his apprenticeship, he obtained an appointment at a wholesale house in Upper Thames Street, London. During his residence in London, his Radical opinions in politics brought him into acquaintance and fellowship with those who afterwards became leaders of the Chartist movement. In 1832, however, he removed to Welshpool, having purchased an extensive ironmongery business there, formerly carried on by Mr. Pryce Bowen. He was, it is said, an excellent tradesman, and did a large business; but expensive habits, and the expenditure of large sums in the furtherance of his political opinions, landed him in pecuniary difficulties, which compelled him to compound with his creditors for thirteen shillings and fourpence in the pound.... Having gone out of business, Powell now devoted all his time and energies to the Chartist agitation, and was looked up to as the ablest advocate of the cause in Montgomeryshire. On Christmas Day 1838, a great demonstration was held at Newtown and Caersws, at which Powell was one of the principal speakers. His speech on this occasion, as reported, contains little that in the present day would be considered reprehensible, but much that is sensible and just. It, however, brought him into trouble -- he was tried for using seditious language, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. During his confinement, he devoted much time to teaching his fellow-prisoners at Montgomery. When the Chartist movement collapsed, Powell engaged with a Colonial Company to go with a party of emigrants to Trinidad, where he settled, and, it is said, married a woman of colour, by whom he had several children, and where, after a few years' residence, he died.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Montgomeryshire, Wales. Montgomeryshire Baptisms. (Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society).
2. ↑ Williams, Richard. "Thomas Powell" in Montgomeryshire Worthies, in Collections, historical and archaeological, relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders. (London: Powys-Land Club, 1868-1942)
   16:35-37.
3.   Collections, historical and archaeological, relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders. (London: Powys-Land Club, 1868-1942)
   35:221.