Family and Education

b. c.1668, o. s. of George Popham of Berwick Bassett, Wilts. and Winchester, Hants by Dulcibella, da. of John Ford of Hastings, Suss.  m. (1) by 1710, Grace Broad (d. 1735), da. of Alexander Alchorne (d. 1705) of Southampton, Hants, h. to her maternal gdfa. Richard Broad of Whitecroft, I.o.W. and coh. to the Dennys and Lisle estates at Newport and Shanklin, 2s. 1da.; (2) Elizabeth (d. 1754), da. of John Redstone of Newport, 1da.  suc. fa. 1687.1

Offices Held

Cursitor of Som. 1705–aft. 1716; receiver-gen. of land tax, Hants 1711–12, of window tax 1711.2

Freeman, Winchester 1710.3

Biography

Popham’s grandfather was Alexander Popham†, the Parliamentarian colonel and Cromwellian ‘lord’. His father had settled in Winchester, where Popham himself became active in the corporation and on the Tory side in local politics, being admitted a freeman in 1710 in order to strengthen the party’s hand at the forthcoming general election. Both of Popham’s cousins, Alexander and Francis Popham, sat in the Commons during this period, but were not Members at the time of John’s election. He himself was returned unopposed at a by-election in March 1714. Having contested Winchester unsuccessfully as a Tory in 1715, he did not stand for Parliament again. He died on 8 Aug. 1754 and was buried at Shanklin.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

• 1. IGI, Wilts; Burke, Commoners, ii. 199; Berry, Hants Gens. 185; Procs. Hants Field Club, v. 73, 80; PCC 37 Exton; info. from Mr J. W. Popham.
• 2. Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 546; Cal. Treas. Bks. xxv. 181, 489; xxvi. 140.
• 3. Hants RO, Winchester corp. recs. ordinance bk. 8, ff. 48–51.
• 4. Ibid; Beaufort mss at Badminton House, Beaufort to Mr Good, 6 Sept. 1711; W. A. Speck, Tory and Whig, 125–6; Berry, 185.