Alexander Popham

Alexander Popham (1605 – 1669) of Littlecote, Wiltshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1669. He was patron of the philosopher John Locke. Early life Popham was born at Littlecote House in Wiltshire, the son of Sir Francis Popham and Anne Gardiner Dudley, and grandson of Sir John Popham and wife Amy Games. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1622. Antebellum Popham was a prominent figure and Justice of the Peace in Somerset. In April 1640 he was elected Member of Parliament for Bath in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Bath for the Long Parliament in November 1640. Civil War and Interregnum Popham came from a Presbyterian family and was himself an elder in the church. He supported the Parliamentary cause. On the outbreak of war he was colonel of the Bath Trained Band, the part-time force of local infantry. After it served in the Siege of Sherborne in September 1642, he took its weapons early in 1643 to arm a full-time regiment of foot for Parliament. Popham's Foot saw action in the 1643 Western campaign that culminated in the Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes. He also had a garrison stationed at Littlecote House.