[1] He was born in County Tipperary in about 1733, one of the three sons of John Power of Barretstown and Elizabeth Congreve, daughter of the Reverend John Congreve of Kilmacow, County Kilkenny and Rebecca Jones, and granddaughter of the Cromwellian army officer and politician Oliver Jones MP.
Probably the most notable trial he presided at was of the eccentric landowner George Robert FitzGerald, who, together with his law agent Timothy Brecknock, was charged in 1786 with conspiracy to murder an attorney, Patrick Randall McDonnell, with whom he had a long-standing quarrel.
His highly successful career came to a tragic end in 1794, due to his alleged misconduct as Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery, a post to which he had been appointed in 1763, and which he continued to hold after he became a judge.
[1] A lengthy lawsuit having concluded concerning the administration of the property of the widowed Anna Eliza Brydges, Duchess of Chandos, who was insane and had been made a ward of Court, the successful party claimed the interest on the sum due to him.
Rumours began to circulate that Power had accumulated his considerable fortune by improperly retaining other funds in a similar fashion.
[3] The fear of professional disgrace, which would inevitably be followed by his removal from the Bench, is believed to have preyed on his mind to the point where he became mentally unstable.
He was found drowned in the River Liffey at Irishtown early in 1794: legend had it that he carried an umbrella on his last journey to keep himself dry.