Walbrook; but his remains were subsequently removed to Trinity College, where his widow erected a semi-Gothic alabaster monument to his memory. He was three times married, but left no children. Much of his property was left to charitable and religious foundations, and the bulk of his Oxfordshire estates passed to the family of his brother, John Pope of Wroxton, and his descendants, the viscounts Dillon and the earls of Guilford and barons North.
The life, by H. E. D. Blakiston, in the Dict. Nat. Biog., corrects many errors in Thomas Warton’s Life of Sir Thomas Pope (1772). Further notices by the same authority are in his Trinity College (1898), in the “College Histories” Series, and in the English Historical Review (April, 1896).
POPE-JOAN, a round game of cards, named after a legendary female Pope of the 9th century. An ordinary pack is used, from which the eight of diamonds has been removed, and a special round board in the form of eight compartments, named respectively Pope-Joan, Matrimony, Intrigue, Ace, King, Queen, Knave and Game (King, Queen and Knave are sometimes omitted). Each player—any number can play—contributes a stake, of which one counter is put into the divisions Ace, King, Queen, Knave and Game, two into Matrimony and Intrigue, and the rest into Pope-Joan. This is called “dressing the board.” The cards are dealt round, with an extra hand for “stops,” i.e. cards which stop, by their absence, the completion of a suit; thus the absence of the nine of spades stops the playing of the ten. The last card is turned up for trumps. Cards in excess may be dealt to “stops,” or an agreed number may be left for the purpose, so that all players may have an equal number of cards. If an honour or “Pope” (nine of diamonds) is turned up, the dealer
takes the counters in the compartment so marked. Sometimes
the turning-up of Pope settles the hand, the dealer taking the
whole pool. The Ace is the lowest card, the King the highest.
The player on the dealer’s left plays a card and names it; the
player who has the next highest then plays it, till a stop is played,
i.e. a card of which no one holds the next highest. All Kings are
of course stops, also the seven of diamonds; also the cards next
below the dealt stops, and the cards next below the played cards. After a stop the played cards are turned over, and the player of the stop (the card last played) leads again. The player who gets rid of all his cards first takes the counters in “Game,” and receives a counter from each player for every card left in his hand, except from the player who may hold Pope but has not played it. The player of Ace, King, Queen or Knave of trumps takes the counters from that compartment. If King and Queen of trumps are in one hand, the holder takes the counters in “Matrimony”; if a Queen and Knave, those in “Intrigue”; if all three, those in the two compartments; if they are in different hands these counters are sometimes divided. Unclaimed stakes are left for the next pool. Pope is sometimes considered a universal “stop.”
POPERINGHE, an ancient town of West Flanders, 12 m. W. of
Ypres. Pop. (1904), 11,680. It contains a fine church of the
11th century, dedicated to St Betin. In the 14th century it
promised to become one of the principal communes in Flanders;
but having incurred the resentment of Ypres on a matter of trade
rivalry it was attacked and captured by the citizens of that
place, who reduced it to a very subordinate position. There are
extensive hop gardens, bleaching grounds and tanneries in the
neighbourhood of the town.
POPHAM, SIR HOME RIGGS (1762–1820), British admiral, was the son of Stephen Popham, consul at Tetuan, and was his mother’s twenty-first child. He entered the navy in 1778, and served with the flag of Rodney till the end of the war. In 1783 he was promoted lieutenant, and was for a time engaged on survey service on the coast of Africa. Between 1787 and 1793 he was engaged in a curious series of adventures of a commercial nature in the Eastern Sea—sailing first for the Imperial Ostend
Company, and then in a vessel which he purchased and in part loaded himself. During this time he took several surveys and rendered some services to the East India Company, which were officially acknowledged; but in 1793 his ship was seized partly
on the ground that he was carrying contraband and partly
because he was infringing the East India Company’s monopoly.
His loss was put at £70,000, and he was entangled in litigation.
In 1805 he obtained compensation to the amount of £25,000.
The case was a hard one for he was undoubtedly sailing with the
knowledge of officials in India. While this dispute was going
on Popham had resumed his career as a naval officer. He
served with the army under the duke of York in Flanders as
“superintendent of Inland Navigation” and won his confidence.
The protection of the duke was exercised with so much effect that
Popham was promoted commander in 1794 and post captain in
1795. He was now engaged for years in co-operating in a naval
capacity with the troops of Great Britain and her allies. In the
Red Sea he was engaged in transporting the Indian troops employed
in the expulsion of the French from Egypt. His bills
for the repair of his ship at Calcutta were made the excuse for
an attack on him and for charging him with the amount. It
was just the time of the general reform of the dockyards, and
there was much suspicion in the air. It was also the case that
St Vincent did not like Popham, and that Benjamin Tucker
(1762–1829), secretary to the admiralty, who had been the
admiral’s secretary, was his creature and sycophant. Popham
was not the man to be snuffed out without an effort. He
brought his case before Parliament, and was able to prove that
there had been, if not deliberate dishonesty, at least the very
grossest carelessness on the part of his assailants. In 1806 he
co-operated with Sir David Baird in the occupation of the Cape.
He then persuaded the authorities that, as the Spanish Colonies
were discontented, it would be easy to promote a rising in Buenos
Ayres. The attempt was made with Popham’s squadron and
1400 soldiers; but the Spanish colonists, though discontented,
were not disposed to accept British help, which would in all
probability have been an excuse for establishing dominion.
They rose on the soldiers who landed, and took them prisoners.
Popham was recalled, and censured by a court martial for leaving
his station; but the City of London presented him with a sword
of honour for his endeavours to “open new markets,” and the
sentence did him no harm. He held other commands in connexion
with the movements of troops, was promoted rear admiral
in 1814, and made K.C.B in 1815. He died at Cheltenham on
the 10th of September 1820, leaving a large family. Popham
was one of the most scientific seamen of his time. He did much
useful survey work, and was the author of the code of signals
adopted by the admiralty in 1803 and used for many years.
POPHAM, SIR JOHN (c. 1531–1607), English judge, was
born at Huntworth, in Somerset, about 1531. He was educated at
Balliol College, Oxford, and called to the bar at the Middle Temple.
Concerning his early life little is known, but he was probably a
member of the parliament of 1558. He was recorder of Bristol,
and represented that city in parliament in 1571 and from 1572
to 1583. He was elected Speaker in 1580, and in 1581 became
attorney-general, a post which he occupied until his appointment
as lord chief justice in 1592. He presided at the
trials of Sir Walter Raleigh and Guy Fawkes. Towards the end
of his life Popham took a great interest in colonization, and was
instrumental in procuring patents for the London and Plymouth
companies for the colonization of Virginia. Popham was an
advocate, too, of transportation abroad as a means of punishing rogues and vagabonds. His experiment in that direction, the Popham colony, an expedition under the leadership of his brother George (c. 1550–1608), had, however, but a brief career in its settlement (1607) on the Kennebec river. Popham died on the 10th of June 1607, and was buried at Wellington, Somerset.
See Foss, Lives of the Judges; J. Winsor, History of America, vol. iii.
POPILIA (or Popillia), VIA, the name of two ancient roads in Italy. (1) A highroad running from the Via Appia at Capua to Regium, a distance of 321 m. right along the length of the peninsula, and the main road through the interior of the country, not along the coast. It was built in 159 B.C. by the censor M. Popilius Laenias or in 132 B.C. by the consul P. Popilius. (2) A
