Notes for: John S POPHAM

Sir John Popham (1531 to 10 June 1607) of Wellington, Somerset, was Speaker of the House of Commons (1580 to 1583), Attorney General (1581 to 1592) and Lord Chief Justice of England (1592 to 1607). Wellington parish church has quite a treasure, one of the most stately of Jacobean monuments in the whole of Somerset. Sir John Popham's effigy (1607) lies alongside that of his wife under a high eight-poster canopy on a tomb-chest. He was the Chief Justice of England, and he presided over two of the most important trials in legal history, those of Guy Fawkes, and Sir Walter Raleigh. There is an inscription at the top of the canopy that reads: 'Sir John Popham Knight and Lord Chief Justice of England and of the Honorable Privy Council to Queen Elizabeth and after to King James. Aged 76. Died the 10th of June 1607 and is here interred.'