page_title: John Popham (judge)
section_title: Littlecote House, Berkshire
hierarchical_section_title: John Popham (judge) / Residences / Littlecote House, Berkshire
caption_attribution_description: Littlecote House
context_page_description: Sir John Popham of Wellington, Somerset, was Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney General and Lord Chief Justice of England.
context_section_description: Popham acquired the reversion of the estate of Littlecote in Berkshire (today in Wiltshire) from William Darrell (1539–1589), MP, and following the latter's death in 1589 duly became its owner. The historian John Aubrey (1626–1697) stated that Popham had acquired Littlecote as a bribe for having obtained a nolle prosequi in favour of the murderer William "Wild" Darrell, which account Rice (2005) deemed "not accurate" and "A story of passion, murder and confusion". Popham expanded the house and added a south wing in red-brick, which structure survives today. His armorials survive above the south porch.
  Following the destruction of Wellington House in the Civil War, Littlecote became the principal seat of his descendants, the last of whom in the male line was Francis Popham (died 1779), of Littlecote and Hunstrete, Somerset, who died childless.  He bequeathed his estates to his wife Dorothy (née Hutton) who in turn left them to "Francis Popham, the reputed son of my late husband" but only as a tenant for life.  This illegitimate son died in 1804 when, under the terms of Dorothy's will, the estates reverted to her husband's nephew Edward William Leyborne (born 1764), who in 1805 in accordance with the terms of the bequest assumed by royal licence the additional surname and arms of Popham. The Leyborne Popham family sold Littlecote in 1929 and moved to their other seat at Hunstrete House, Pensford, Somerset.
caption: Littlecote House, south front added by Sir John Popham after 1589. His armorials sculpted in stone survive above the front door
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