POPHAM, John (c.1668-1754), of Russley Park, Wilts. and Newport and Shanklin, I.o.W.

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 Ibid; Beaufort mss at Badminton House, Beaufort to Mr Good, 6 Sept. 1711; W. A. Speck, Tory and Whig, 125–6; Berry, 185.