Maurice Power

Maurice Power (1811-1870) was member of parliament for County Cork (1847-1852) and served as Lieutenant Governor for St Lucia from 1852.

He was born in Deelish, Skibbereen, County Cork, the fourth son of Andrew Power. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and subsequently qualified as a doctor. He travelled to America where he married Catherine Livingston in 1832; she was the youngest daughter of Judge Henry Brockholst Livingston and Catherine (Seaman) Kortright.

Power returned to Ireland and became involved with local politics, supporting the Repeal Party. He was appointed a member of the Clonakilty bench of magistrates, but resigned in 1843 when a fellow magistrate was dismissed by the Lord Chancellor for attending a political meeting. He was reappointed in 1846 and became a magistrate in Cove.

In 1847, Daniel O'Connell, the member of parliament for County Cork died. Maurice Power was selected to stand as the Repeal Party candidate, winning the election and holding the seat until 1852.

In 1852 Power was appointed the Lieutenant-Governor for St Lucia. This was received with incredulity amongst those who had supported his election campaign. They believed that he had pledged not to take a government appointment, and that he was now being rewarded for supporting the ruling Whig party, in particular Lord Clarendon during the Birch affair. Power retired from his posting in St Lucia in 1855, moving to Freiburg in Prussia on health grounds. He returned to Cork in the early 1860s, purchasing Ringacoltig House and Estate, resuming interest in local politics. He died there on 28 December 1870, buried locally, although his remains were exhumed in the following year, and re-buried in the family plot in Rosscarbery.

Family

Two of Maurice Power’s brothers were prominent members of the Irish-American community in New York: John Power was the Roman Catholic Pastor of St Peter's Lower Manhattan from 1819 to 1849 and Vicar General of the diocese of New York. He was the priest who married Maurice Power and Catherine Louise Livingston in 1832. His other brother, William, was a doctor who worked in the Irish community. Power’s sister, Anne, also lived in New York and was the wife of property developer Thomas E. Davis.

Maurice Power’s son, Brockholst Livingston Power, was a lieutenant in the Prussian army before joining the Federal army as a captain in the Corning Light Cavalry during the American Civil War. Another son, John Livingston Power, was a surgeon in the British Army and fought as a volunteer in the Franco-Prussian War. He died of cancer at Manheim, Germany, 25 Jan 1877 and was accorded a military funeral by the German officers of that garrison.

Three of Powers daughters married Prussians and lived in that country; a forth daughter (Alice) married her cousin Edwin Brockholst Livingston.

Catherine Power's brothers were Henry Brockholst Livingston (1819-1892) and Jasper Hall Livingston (1815-1900) - who was her twin. He married Matilda Anne Cecila Morris, the youngest daughter of Sir John Morris, 2nd Baronet of Clasemont and died in England. Henry married Marian Magdalen Gribaldo in Florence, Italy and is buried in the Swiss Protestant Cemetery of Florence. Catherine Power - who was a twin - gave birth to twins in 1850. They were Alice Mary, who married Edwin Brockholst Livingston and Lucinda Frances, who married Wilhelm Ludwig Ernst Leopold Emil, Freiherr Böcklin von Böcklinsau.

Property

Power and his wife Catherine inherited a share of properties owned by Catherine's mother who died in 1859. The beneficiaries of the will included the surviving children from her marriage to Judge Brockholst Livingston and the earlier marriage to John Kortright. The properties amounted to 15 lots located in New York. Power also owner at least 2000 acres of land in Cork Ireland at the time of his death.