Editing John Popham (judge) (section)

===Wellington House, Somerset===
[[File:Montacute House East Front - geograph.org.uk - 851610.jpg|thumb|[[Montacute House]], east front, comparable in size<ref name="Hasler">Hasler</ref> and date to Wellington House built by Sir John Popham and destroyed in 1645]]
As his main residence he built Wellington House, a "large and stately mansion"<ref name=burke198>Burke, 1837, p. 198.</ref> in the town of [[Wellington, Somerset]], "only slightly smaller than [[Montacute House|Montacute]]"<ref name="Hasler"/> also in Somerset (built in about 1598 by Sir [[Edward Phelips (speaker)|Edward Phelips]], [[Master of the Rolls]] and the prosecutor during the trial of the [[Gunpowder Plot]]ters). It was destroyed during the [[English Civil War|Civil War]] (1642–1651), having been ''"obtained by strategem by one Bovet of [[Taunton]] who converted it into a garrison for the use of the Parliament army and defended it for a considerable time against Sir [[Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet|Richard Grenville]] who came to its rescue in which contest it was so battered that it was never afterward deemed worthy repairing".''<ref name=burke198/> In March 1645 the Royalist commander Grenville was ordered to march into Somersetshire and assist in the siege of [[Taunton]]. While inspecting the fortifications of "Wellington House" he was severely wounded, and obliged for a time to resign the command of his forces to Sir John Berkeley.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Grenville, Richard (1600-1658) |volume= 23 |last= Firth |first= Charles |author-link= Charles Firth (historian) |pages= 124-127 |quote= see para 2 lines 17-18 |year= |short=1}}</ref> Wellington had probably been supplying Blake with necessaries for some time, and Colonel Bovet, a very ardent Parliamentarian, got possession of Popham's house and made it a stronghold for his party. So against Wellington Grenville directed the Royalist force and levelled Popham's house almost to the ground, himself being so severely injured that the leadership of his men had to be transferred to Sir John Barkley. The following document dated 19 October 1650<ref>Historical MSS. Commission, Seventh Report.</ref> was addressed to Justices of Peace of Somerset:<ref>Quoted from ''The Materials for the History of the Town of Wellington, Co. Somerset,'' pp. 87–8 [http://www.mocavo.co.uk/The-Materials-for-the-History-of-the-Town-of-Wellington-Co-Somerset/307108/109] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004203140/http://www.mocavo.co.uk/The-Materials-for-the-History-of-the-Town-of-Wellington-Co-Somerset/307108/109|date=4 October 2015}}</ref>
:"Anne Martyn of Wellington, widdowe, being in the howse of the Honourable Alexander Popham with her family, att the seige thereof by the late Kinge's forces, sustayned greate losses of goodes and cattle, viz., several kine, one heifer, tenne young cattle, three calves, five colts, a mare and a horse, forty sheepe, five bedds with their furniture, bacon, butter, and cheese, wool, lynnen, corne of all sorts, pewter, brasse, and other moveable goodes, valued in all att the summe of ... hundred and threescore and fifteen poundes, besides the summe of twenty and two poundes in ready money; and that her eldest sonne was killed in the said howse by the said late Kynges forces. Signed Rich. Bouell, Alexander Popham, Edw. Popham, John Pyne."<ref>Further reading: Seaby, W.A., ''Wellington House, the Elizabethan Mansion of Sir John Popham, Knight, Lord Chief Justice'', Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1952 (booklet/offprint); originally published in: Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. XCVII, 1952, pp. 153–162.</ref>