Cuthbert Powell

Cuthbert Powell (March 4, 1775 – May 8, 1849) was a Virginia lawyer and Whig politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and one term in the U.S. representative from Virginia, like his father, former Congressman Leven Powell. Early and family life Born in Alexandria, Virginia, to the former Sally Harrison and her husband Leven Powell, a planter and merchant in Loudoun County who had volunteered to fight the British as the American Revolutionary War started and who would also serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and U.S. House of Representatives. Both parents could trace their descent from the First Families of Virginia. The family included several other children, including Burr Powell, whom Cuthbert would succeed in the Virginia senate. He received a private education customary for his class, then studied law. In 1799, he married Catherine Simms, daughter of Col. Charles Simms, who like his father Maj. Powell had served as a Continental Army officer, then returned to become a lawyer in Alexandria (and would become its mayor during the War of 1812). The couple had at least five children, including Charles Leven Powell (1804-1896; who lost two sons in the Confederate Army, one at each Battle of Manassas) and Cuthbert Harrison Powell (1810-1897), and Ann Powell Powell (1800-1885; who married her cousin Dr. William Leven Powell), Mary Ellen Powell Adie (1807-1893; who married her cousin Cuthbert Powell, then Rev. Adie), Ellen Douglas Powell Gray (1812-1862) and Jane Serena Powell Norris (1815-1901). Career After admission to the Virginia bar, Powell practiced in Alexandria (then part of the District of Columbia), where he would eventually be elected mayor. In 1806 he became a member of Alexandria's city council, and served as the city's mayor in 1808–1809. He also joined a company formed in 1808 to build a turnpike into the new federal city across the Potomac River. Other members included: Jonah Thompson, fellow lawyer Edmund J. Lee, Charles Alexander, Thomas Swann, Jacob Hoffman and John Mandeville.