FIRST BARON LILFORD 



Powys, born in 1788, captain in the 83rd regiment 

 of foot, fell at the siege of Badajoz, during the 

 Peninsular War in 1812. 



Heroes of forlorn hopes are not made on 

 the spot, and the courage and self-forgetfulness 

 which distinguished the young soldier from the 

 Midlands must have had exercise in bygone 

 days, at home or at school. He was chosen 

 to go to his death ; and the light falls on him for 

 a moment, as, with his doomed party, he stands 

 that April night on the scaling ladders raised 

 against the Spanish city. The first to enter, he 

 was also the first to fall. A marble tablet at 

 Thorpe- Achurch, bracketing him with his naval 

 brother Charles, who died of fever in the West 

 Indies, remains as his memorial. 



In 1797 the eldest son of the first Lord 

 Lilford married Miss Atherton, of Atherton Hall, 

 Lancashire. Tradition has it that Mrs. Ather- 

 ton, troubled by some knotty point of law con- 

 nected with the property of her three daughters, 

 was advised by a friend to apply to Mr. Powys, 

 as a good expounder of legal subtleties. The 

 request was made and granted, and was shortly 

 followed by another, proceeding this time from 



