William Powell was born in 1735 at Hereford, and after attending the Grammar School there was nominated to Christ’s Hospital, where he completed his education. Sir Robert Ladbroke employed him in his City office, and Horace Walpole heard that he was ‘so clever in business that his master would have taken him in partner’. All accounts of Powell agree, however, that his attention was very much divided between his office duties and the ‘Spouting Clubs’ he frequented in his spare time; and ultimately, as usual, it was the theatre which won. On David Garrick’s return to the stage Powell continued at Drury Lane, but was misguidedly persuaded in 1767 to break his articles and make one of the ill-fated ‘Four Kings of Brentford’ whose rule at Covent Garden proved such a sorry farce. The descriptions of Powell give one a very fair idea of his physical resources as an actor.