Lord William Powlett [Poulett]

Landowner, son of William Harry Vane, 1st Duke of Cleveland (q.v.), with whom he was awarded the compensation as owners-in-fee of the Lowther estate in Barbados. Inherited title as 3rd Duke of Cleveland briefly in 1864, 8 months before his death.

Lord William Powlett (1792-1864) was the second son of the 1st Duke of Cleveland, and briefly occupied Raby Castle when he became the 3rd Duke of Cleveland for a few months in 1864 after the death of his brother the 2nd Duke. Powlett was also an MP (as Lord William Powlett) for Winchelsea (1812-15), Durham County (1815-31); St Ives (1846-52) and Ludlow (1852-7): and he was Deputy Lieutenant of Co. Durham.

Slave-ownership came into the family through complex intermarriage of the males of the family with females from the Lowther family whose wealth was founded on slavery in Barbados. Robert Lowther (1681-1745) had a son James who became the first Earl of Lonsdale, and two daughters, Margaret, who married the 2nd Earl of Darlington, and Katherine, who married the 6th and last Duke of Bolton.

The 1st Duke of Cleveland, whose mother was thus Margaret Lowther, in turn married his first cousin Katherine Poulett or Powlett, the daughter of Katherine Lowther and the Duke of Bolton. He was thus related both through his mother and his wife to the Lowthers.

Hence Lord William Powlett's grandmothers on both his father and his mother's side were the Lowther sisters. He in turn married Lady Caroline Lowther, the daughter of Sir William Lowther (the 3rd cousin once removed of James, Earl of Lonsdale, who was his closest male relative) who became known, confusingly, as the 1st Earl of Lonsdale when the title was refounded.            

How significant the linkage of the slave-economy was for the family's overall wealth is hard to discern.  The main source of wealth was clearly rentals and profits from landed estates in Britain. When the Duke of Cleveland died in 1842, he left an estate probated at £1,000,000 'within province' in personalty, i.e. excluding his landed estates (but including accumulated financial holdings bought with the past profits from the land). His first son left £800,000 in personalty; Powlett, dying as the 3rd Duke, left only £180,000, but this cannot reflect any of his brother's wealth that was bequeathed to him earlier in the year.

T71/898 Barbados claim no. 3184 (Lowther).

William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 (MS) reference 1864/16 left £180,000.