He was born John Powel Hare, the youngest of the six chidren of Robert and Margaret Willing Hare. As a youth, he was adopted by his mother"s widowed and childless sister, Elizabeth Willing Powel (1743–1830), and was educated at The Academy and College of Philadelphia.
He served as Secretary of the American Legation in London, 1807-1811. After the war he devoted himself to agriculture, and did much to improve the breeding of cattle in the United States. He founded the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society in 1823, and published Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society (1824) and Hints for American Farmers (1827).
John Hare Powel, Junior.
(1837–1890) served as mayor of Newport, Rhode Island. The Powels built a massive Greek-Revival mansion and estate in West Philadelphia, overlooking the Schuylkill River – "Powelton" (1825-1832, William Strickland, architect). The mansion was demolished in 1885, and the estate developed as the neighborhood Powelton Village.
He was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, 1827-1830.
