Thomas Powell

Son of Joh. Pow. Rector of Cantreffe near to, and in the County of, Brecknock, was born there in 1608, made his first entrie into this University in 1625, elected Scholar of Jesus Coll. in 162 [•] , took the degrees in Arts and afterwards was made Fellow of that House. About which time applying his mind to the faculty of Theologie, he entred into the sacred function, and at length became Rector of the place of his nativity. In the time of the Civil War he suffer’d much for the Kings cause, and being sequestred of his spiritualities, ship’d himself beyond the Seas for a time. After the return of Ch. 2. to his Kingdoms, he was restored to them, was actually created D. of D. and made Canon of S David, and would without doubt have risen higher in the Church, had he not been untimely snatch’d away from it. He was a Person well vers’d in several sorts of learning, was an able Philosopher, a curious Critick, was well skill’d in various languages, and not to be contemn’d for his knowledge in Divinity. He hath written,

Elementa Opticae: nova, facili & compendiosâ methodo explicata, &c. Lond. 1651. oct. Commended to the World by the copies of verses of Olor Iscanus and Eugenius Philalethes his Brother.

Quadriga Salutis: or, the four general heads of Christian Religion surveyed and explained. Lond. 1657. oct. At the latter end of which are some annotations of the same Author in the Welsh tongue.

A Catechistical Tract of the Lords Prayer, the Creed, and ten Commandements.—This I have not yet seen, and therefore I know not to the contrary, but that it may be the same with his Catechisme in Welsh and English.

Humane industry: or a history of most manual Arts, deducing the original, progress and improvement of them, &c. Lond. 1661. in oct. This I have in my study, but his name is not set to it. He translated from Ital. into English—Stoa Triumphans. Two letters of the noble and learned Marquess Virgilio Malvezzi, one in praise of banishment, the other in contempt of honor; and from French into English, (1) Recueil de novellis Lettres: or the last letters of Monsieur de Balsac. (2) The unfortunate Politick: or the life of Herod. He left behind him a Ms. of his composition unpublished, intit.

Fragmenta de rebus Britannicis. A short account of the lives, manners, and religion of the British Druids and the Bards, &c.—As also two translations, one from the Latine, and another from the Italian, tongue. That from the Latine hath this title. The Insubrian Historie, containing an exact account of the various fates, civil commotions, battles and seiges acted upon the theater of Lombardie, and the adjacent parts of Italy, &c. written originally by the learned Puteanus. And that from the Ital. hath this, The Christian politic Favourite: or, a vindication of the politic transactions of the Count-Duke de S. Lucar, the great Minister of State and favourite counsellour to Philip the 4. of Spayne. Written originally by Virg. Malvezzi before mention’d. it was before traduced, but in this translation all things were righted therein, by our Author T. Powell, who giving way to fate at London on the last day of December in sixteen hundred and sixty,1660. was the next day buried in the Church of S. Dunstan in the West in Fleetstreet, Lond. leaving then behind him the character of a most ingenious and polite Person.