Powys (surname)
Powys is a Welsh surname. Notable people with the surname include:
- Littleton Powys (1647-1732), British judge;
- Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford (1833–1896), British aristocrat and ornithologist;
- Thomas Powys (judge) (1649-1719), Attorney General to King James II;
- John Cowper Powys (1872–1963), English novelist, lecturer and philosopher;
- Littleton Powys (cricketer) (1771–1842), English cricketer;
- Llewelyn Powys (1884–1939), British novelist and essayist, brother of John Cowper, Philippa and T.F.;
- Philippa Powys (1886–1963) was a British novelist and poet, sister of John Cowper, Llewelyn and T.F.;
- T. F. Powys (1875–1953), British writer;
- Betsan Powys (born 1965), Welsh journalist, political journalist and editor for BBC Wales.
Of the people above, six are descended from the same family that was clearly found in Ludlow, Shropshire in the sixteenth century. There is evidence, but not strong, from the seventeenth century that the Ludlow Powyses came from Cockshutt, also in Shropshire (see the unpublished 1662/3 Visitation of Shropshire in the College of Arms). The Cockshutt Powyses (and Powis and Powes, etc.) are to be found in public records from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see charters in Shropshire Record Office). There are other families of Powis, who also are probably descended from this Cockshutt branch. It is possible that these Powys/Powis/Powes are of Welsh ancestry but there is no clear evidence to support this.