Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/264

 tached to the Portuguese army under General Beresford, and commanded a Portuguese brigade at the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle, and Orthes. For his services he received a cross and clasp, and was made knight-commander of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword. The honour of K.C.B. was conferred on him on 2 Jan. 1815. He subsequently served on the staff in Canada, and held the office of lieutenant-governor of Malta. He died at Berne, Switzerland, on 7 July 1826.

Power married, first, in 1802, Sarah, daughter of J. Coulson, by whom he had a son Manley (1803–1857); the latter became a lieutenant-colonel commanding the 85th regiment. He married, secondly, in 1818, Anne, daughter of Kingsmill Evans, colonel in the Grenadier guards, of Lydiart House, Monmouthshire. His eldest son by her, Kingsmill Manley Power (1819–1881), was captain in the 9th and 16th Lancers, and served with distinction in the Gwalior and Sutlej campaigns.

[Army Lists; Burke's Landed Gentry; Gent. Mag. 1826, ii. 182–3; Royal Military Calendar, iii. 312.] 

POWER, MARGUERITE, afterwards, (1789–1849). [See .]

POWER, MARGUERITE A. (1815?–1867), was a daughter of Colonel Power, and niece of Marguerite, countess of Blessington [q. v.] She spent much time with her aunt, and after the break up at Gore House in April 1849, Miss Power and her sister accompanied their aunt to Paris. Miss Power wrote a memoir of Lady Blessington, which was prefixed to Lady Blessington's novel, ‘Country Quarters,’ published in 1850; it is reprinted in the ‘Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington,’ 1893.

From 1851 to 1857 Miss Power edited the ‘Keepsake.’ In 1860 she published a poem, ‘Virginia's Hand,’ dedicated to John Forster. It is a story told in poor blank verse, and evidently written under the influence of Mrs. Browning's ‘Aurora Leigh.’ Landor, however, highly praised Miss Power's poetical efforts, especially a poem written by her in Heath's ‘Book of Beauty.’ Her last publication was an account of a winter's residence in Egypt, entitled ‘Arabian Days and Nights, or Rays from the East,’ 1863. It is dedicated to Janet and Henry Ross, with whom she stayed at Alexandria. Miss Power died, after a long illness, in July 1867. She was an accomplished woman, possessing considerable personal attractions and some sense of humour (cf., Book of Memories, pp. 404–5).

Her works, other than those already mentioned, are: 1. ‘Evelyn Forester: a Woman's Story,’ 1856. 2. ‘The Foresters,’ 2 vols. 3. ‘Letters of a Betrothed,’ 1858. 4. ‘Nelly Carew,’ 1859, 2 vols. 5. ‘Sweethearts and Wives,’ 1861, 3 vols., 2nd edit. She also contributed to the ‘Irish Metropolitan Magazine,’ ‘Forget-me-not,’ and ‘Once a Week.’

[Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. p. 1167; Madden's Countess of Blessington, ii. 393; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 208; Gent. Mag. 1867, ii. 266.] 

POWER, RICHARD, first (1630–1690), was the eldest son of John, lord de la Power of Curraghmore, co. Waterford (patent in ), who died in 1661, by his wife Ruth Pyphoe. About the time of his eldest son's birth, John, lord Power, became a lunatic, and this affliction seems to have been the means of preserving the great family estates. Richard's mother died when he was about twelve years old, and his grandmother, Mrs. Pyphoe, obtained protection for her daughter's children on the ground of their father's lunacy, and consequent innocence of the rebellion of 1641. The lords justices and council directed that no one should molest the Curraghmore family, and when Cromwell came to Ireland he issued an order on 20 Sept. 1649 setting forth that Lord Power and his family were ‘taken into his special protection.’ None of the Powers were excepted from pardon in the Cromwellian Act of Settlement, but they were impoverished by the war, and in the spring of 1654 they received a grant of 20s. a week. They were threatened with transplantation to Connaught in that year, but were respited after inquiry; and Colonel Richard Lawrence [q. v.] certified on 15 July that ‘my Lord Power hath been in a distemper, disabling him to act at all, and that his son Mr. Richard Power hath ever demeaned himself inoffensively that ever I heard, having killed tories and expressed much forwardness therein, and never acted anything against the authority that I heard of’ (copy at Gurteen). The family were classed as recusants, but there was no forfeiture. In 1655 Richard's sister Catherine (d. 1660) was appointed his guardian. About three years later she married John Fitzgerald of Dromana, when she and Richard prayed that another guardian might be appointed.

The Restoration brought prosperity to Curraghmore, and Richard was M.P. for co. Waterford in the Irish parliament of 1660. He succeeded to the peerage on the death of