Thomas Powys (judge)

He was attorney general to King James II and was chief prosecutor at the trial of the Seven Bishops in June 1688.

Having acquiesced in the appointment of Roman Catholics to office, and argued in favour of the king's dispensing power, he was promoted to attorney-general in December 1687, the same year that he became treasurer of Lincoln's Inn.

The acquittal of the Bishops was a disastrous blow to the Crown's prestige, and Powys was heavily criticised for incompetence: inexplicably he forgot to adduce evidence that the Petition had ever been presented, so that the trial almost collapsed at the outset.

However, given the immense public sympathy for the Bishops, and that two of the four judges directed the jury to acquit, it is unlikely that any prosecutor could have secured a conviction.

[1] He acquired a reputation for fairness, especially in defence of state prisoners, among whom was Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet, and at the bar of both houses of parliament.

He had been agitating Lord Harley for preferment since the Tory administration was formed and was rewarded on 8 June 1713 with the post of judge of the Queen's Bench[1] but as he and his brother, Sir Littleton Powys, too frequently formed judgments in opposition to the rest of the court, he, as the more active and able of the two, was removed, on Lord-chancellor Cowper's advice, when George I of Great Britain came to England (1714).

[6] Powys lived in London, where all his eight children were born and baptised at St Giles in the Fields, Holburn, prior to acquiring Lilford Hall in 1711, induced to inspect it by his friend, Sir Edward Ward.

[7] He died in London in 1719 and was temporarily held at St Giles in the Fields, Holburn, and was buried at Lilford, Northants and later moved to Thorp Achurch nearby.