Talk:Home Riggs Popham

Popham numeric code external link doesn't work Arthur Roberts 23:35, 6 February 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthur Roberts (talk • contribs)

History?
How was signaling accomplished before the flag system he introduced? Echoniner (talk) 03:43, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Biography assessment rating comment
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Very nearly a B.

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Pophams Victory off the Hand of Java Sept. 7 1807
I own a tall clock made by my 4 times great grandfather a clockmaker named Whiteley in the village of Soyland in Yorkshire. The whole clock has a military motif with an inlay of very high quality of a navel canon under the door and the dial painted with cavalry charging the 9 and 10 over to between the 2 and 3 and an infantry man standing on either side of the winding holes. The highlight is an amazing painting of a navel engagement in the arch above the dial. The painting which is of very high quality shows more than 9 ships and the 2 main ships exchanging fire look to be about 74s the caption under it reads " The Victory Gained by Adm. Sir Home Popham off the Hand of Java Sept 7 1807

The only information I have found about Popham is this Wikpedia article and I have found nothing about the Fight off the Hand of Java. I assume this to be a part of the battle of Copenhagen which ended with the city's surrender on the 7th (and as this is where he was serving at the time) but I do not find it mentioned in my history of the fight; If anyone can enlighten me I will be most grateful. Windshadow 13:27, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


 * There is a good description of Popham's involvement in this campaign in chapter 16 of his biography " A Damned Cunning Fellow " (Hugh Popham, The Old Ferry Press, 1991). However there is no mention of 'the Hand of Java'.
 * Downhamhill 12:47, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Home Riggs Popham was 15th of 21 children
This is to resolve the claims by some that Home Riggs was the 21st child of his mother; he was in fact the 15th.

Joseph Popham (c. 1710 - 1774) married twice. His first wife Mary Riggs married Joseph on 1st March 1739, and bore fifteen children between 1740 and her death in 1762. Home Riggs was the last of these: according to the family bible Mary died at Gibraltar on 12th October 1762 shortly after giving birth to him. Joseph then married Catherine Lamb (1735-1818), on 7th July 1763; she gave birth to a further six children before Joseph himself died in 1774.

So, although it is true that Home Riggs was one of 21 children, he was only the fifteenth, and neither mother gave birth to as many as 21!

For detailed information see:


 * Popham, Hugh, " A Damned Cunning Fellow - The eventful life of Rear-Admiral Sir Home Popham KCB, KCH, KM, FRS" (1991) Published by The Old Ferry Press. ISBN 0-9516758-0-X


 * Popham, Frederick William, “A West Country Family: The Pophams since 1150” (privately printed, 1976)

Downhamhill 12:36, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Descendants
> His descendants remained actively involved in the armed forces of Britain and the British Empire until the 1970s.

This is a lovely claim, but does need sourcing. JDAWiseman (talk) 23:30, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Auction of wine
Readers might be interested to know that his wine was sold at Christie’s on 3 April 1821, an auction catalogue surviving in Christie’s archive. JDAWiseman (talk) 23:32, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Popham's brother-in-law and his relationship with William Porter White
Having read Hugh Popham's biography (A Dammned Cunning Fellow) I'm intrigued by his failing to mention at all the American William Porter White (Pittsfield, Mass., 1769 - Buenos Aires, 1842), whom Sir Home certainly knew. They had met apparently in the East Indies in the late 1790s and then again during the failed invasion of Buenos Aires in 1806, led by Popham and Beresford. White sided with the invaders and paid the price by having to endure legal procedures and prison. During a deposition at Montevideo on 18 Feb 1808, White was accused of having hid two letters in English from Beresford and Popham. Of the latter he declared it had been written and addressed to him by Popham but could not be certain unless he compared the hand with others Popham had written to him before for other reasons, that the date referred to the year 1806, and that it was delivered by his brother-in-law (my italics) who was the person being recommended by Popham to White (Archivo General de la Nación, Gobierno Colonial, Criminales, 1807, Leg. 55, transcribed in: Molinari, Diego Luis, Antecedentes de la Revolución de Mayo, II, Un Virrey, 1808 Mayo-Julio, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Buenos Aires, 1923, Appendix page LXXXVI). So, who was this brother-in-law? No mention in the book either of Popham having a relative in the fleet; he could have been the husband of one of Pophams's sisters or a brother of Mrs. Popham, born Elizabeth Moffat Prince. Any clues? There are also several bloopers in the book when referring to Spanish names. Page 151: "the Cuello River, which Fernyhough called 'the Baraccas, a small branch of the River Plate' " and "the Viceroy, the Marquis Sobramente". The river's name is the Riachuelo, meaning 'small stream' in Spanish. It's not a branch of the river Plate though it flows into it. If the author was quoting from a period text (as he is from Fernyhough's, where the correct spelling would be 'Barracas') he should have said so and supplied the actual name. What's less excusable is the incorrect spelling of the viceroy's name, which is Sobremonte. On page 160, "with the island of Goretti captured at the same time" - it's Gorriti.Alejandro Milberg (talk) 17:21, 4 July 2018 (UTC)