Horatio Powys, Bishop of Sodor and Man

Horatio Powys was born on 20 November 1805, the third son of Thomas Powys, 2nd Baron Lilford and his wife Henrietta Maria, eldest daughter of Robert Vernon Atherton of Atherton Hall, Lancashire. He was educated at Harrow and at St. John’s College, Cambride, where he graduated M.A. in 1866 and was later created D.D. (1854). In 1831 his father presented him to the family living of Warrington in Lancashire and he was for some time rural dean of Cheshire. Strongly impressed with the necessity for improved education, he succeeded in establishing the training college at Chester and the institution for the education of the daughters of the clergy at Warrington, both of which proved permanently successful. On 5 July 1854 he was appointed bishop of Sodor and Man. He made successful endeavours to uphold the rights of the see, which involved him in much litigation.

He married, on 21 February 1833, Percy Gore, eldest daughter of William Currie of East Horsley Park, Surrey, and had issue: Horace (died 1857); Percy William , rector of Thorpe-Achurch, Northamptonshire; Henry Lyttleton, lieutenant-colonel of the Oxfordshire light infantry; and five daughters.

He died at Bewsey House, Bournemouth, on 31 May 1877, and was buried at Warrington on 5 June.

Photographed by Camille Silvy in 1860.