Powell, William Samuel

Powell, William Samuel an English divine of remarkable ability, was born at Colchester Sept. 27, 1717; was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1734; and, having taken the degree of bachelor of arts in 1738-9, was elected fellow of it in March, 1740. In 1741 he was taken into the family of lord Townshend as private tutor to his second son, Charles, afterwards chancellor of the Exchequer; was ordained deacon and priest at the end of the year, and instituted to the rectory of Colkirk, in Norfolk, on lord Townshend's presentation. He returned to college the year after, began to read lectures as an assistant to the principal tutor; but became himself principal tutor in 1744. He took the degree of bachelor of divinity in 1749, and of doctor in 1756. In 1765 he was elected master of his college, obtained the archdeaconry of Colchester the year after, and in 1768 was instituted to the rectory of Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. He died Jan. 19, 1775. He published, Defense of the Subscriptions required in the Church of England (Lond. 1757, 4to):Observations on Miscellanea Analytica (1760): — Sermons on 1 Corinthians 1:23, 24 (1767, 4to): — Charge (1772, 8vo; 1773): — Discourses on Various Subjects (published with Life by Thomas Bulguy, D.D., 1776, 8vo). Dr. Powell's and Thomas Fawcett's Discourses, thirty-four in all, delivered before the University of Cambridge, were republished in 1832 (8vo) in Divines of the Church of England. These discourses of Powell, says bishop Watson, "are written with great acuteness and knowledge of the several subjects." "It would be impossible to produce a more eminent instance of the happy alliance of taste and genius with learning and good sense than in the sermons and charges of Dr. Powell; of whom, indeed, on every account, the whole society over which he presided might justly join with me in saying, "Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt" (Prof. Mainwaring). Powell's discourses are also highly commended by Mathias. See Pursuits of Literature (ed. 1822), p. 225, 371; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Genesis Biog. Dict, s.v.