Thomas Povey ( c1613 - c1705 )

Birth: c 1613 Death: c 1702 Occupation: Lawyer; politician; merchant; colonial administrator Education: Gray's Inn (admitted 1633) Career: Author of the Civil War pamphlet 'The Moderator, Expecting Sudden Peace of Certaine Ruine' (1643); MP for Liskeard, Cornwall (1646); helped in the fitting out of the Western Design Fleet (1654) used for an English expedition against the Spanish West Indies during the 1654 to 1660 Anglo-Spanish War; Council of Trade (1655, 1660); Chairman and Secretary of the Council for America (1657); Member of the Council for the Colonies (1657); MP for Bossiney (1659); Treasurer to the Duke of York (1660-1666); Secretary on the Committee for Foreign Plantations (1661); Receiver-General for the rents and revenues of the plantations in Africa and America (1661); Treasurer and Surveyor-General of the Victualling Department for Tangier, briefly a British-ruled colony (1662-1665); Master of Requests (1662-1685); travelled in Devon and Cornwall (1665); Recorder for Thetford; Shareholder in the Royal African Company and other colonial trading schemes including the Nova Scotia Company; had an interest in engineering and filed a patent with John Pritchard for a water-raising engine (1669) Membership: Original Fellow Election Date: 20/05/1663 Council: 1663; 1691-1692 Committee appointments include: Mechanical Committee (1664) Committee for Agriculture [Georgical] (1664) Committee for Correspondence (1664) Other RSActivity: Proposed Society correspondency in Africa (1661); Conducted an experiment relating to the transmutation of copper into brass (c.1665); Solicited by Henry Howard of Norfolk (FRS 1666) to contribute to the establishment of a building for the Society (1668).