Constituency Dates
Somerset 1597
Wiltshire 1604
Marlborough 1614
Great Bedwyn 1621
Chippenham 1624, 1625, 1626, 1628
Minehead 1640 (Nov.)
Family and Education
b. c. 1570, o.s. of John Popham by Amy, da. and h. of Hugh Adams of Castleton, Glam. educ. Balliol, Oxf. 1588; M. Temple 1589. m. Anne, da. and h. of John Dudley I of Stoke Newington, Mdx., 4s. (2 d.v.p.) 7da. Kntd. 1596; KB 1603; suc. fa. 1607.
Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. from 1597, Som. by 1602; dep. lt. Wilts., Som. from 1597; constable, Taunton castle 1613; member, Virginia and New England Cos.; member, mines royal.

Address
Main residences: Wellington, Som.; Littlecote, Wilts.
biography text

Popham was elected for the county while still in his twenties, and just after he received his knighthood at Cadiz. His father was chief justice at the time. In the 1597 Parliament Popham was named to two committees: on a private bill, 22 Nov. 1597, and for the relief of soldiers and mariners, 26 Jan. 1598. As a knight of the shire he might also have attended committees on enclosures and the poor law (5 Nov.), armour and weapons and the penal laws (8 Nov.), monopolies (10 Nov.), rebuilding Langport Eastover (10 Nov.), the subsidy (15 Nov.) and the poor law (22 Nov.). Nothing more need here be said about him in the Elizabethan period. He died 28 July 1644, aged 74.1Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 87, 125; Al. Ox. iii. 1181; Lansd. 94, f. 137; PRO Index 4208, pp. 110, 251; APC, xxviii. 91; Harbin, Som. MPs, 133; D’Ewes, 552, 553, 555, 557, 561, 588; SP16/502/72.

Author
R.C.G.
J.P.F.
Volume
Commons 1558-1603
Notes
  • 1. Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 87, 125; Al. Ox. iii. 1181; Lansd. 94, f. 137; PRO Index 4208, pp. 110, 251; APC, xxviii. 91; Harbin, Som. MPs, 133; D’Ewes, 552, 553, 555, 557, 561, 588; SP16/502/72.