- GB-2014-WSA-14113
- Person
- 1760-1820
POPHAM, SIR HOME RIGGS, brother of Stephen Popham (KS 1759, qv); b. 12 Oct 1760; adm. 14 Nov 1774; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 23 Jan 1776, but did not matr.; entered Royal Navy Feb 1778; Lieut., 16 Jun 1783; Commander 26 Nov 1794; Post Capt., 4 Apr 1795; Rear-Adm., 4 Jun 1814; engaged in East India and China trade, with Admiralty permission; nearly ruined by the capture of his trading ship Etrusco in 1793, which involved him in prolonged litigation; served in Flanders under Duke of York 1793-5; attended OWW dinners at Calcutta in 1801 and 1803 (Hickey, Memoirs, iv, 271, 494); his innocence of a charge of embezzlement was established by a Select Committee of the House of Commons 1805; Commander-in-Chief of expedition which conquered Cape of Good Hope Dec 1805 – Jan 1806; took a British expeditionary force from there to Buenos Aires, briefly captured in July 1806 but then recaptured by Spanish troops who took the British occupying garrison prisoners; superseded 5 Jan 1807 and severely reprimanded by court-martial Mar 1807; took part in expedition to Copenhagen 1808; Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station 1817-20; MP Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) 21 Mar 1804 – Jan 1806, Shaftesbury 1806-7, Ipswich 1807-12; received freedom, City of London 8 Jan 1808; KCB 2 Jan 1815; KCH 1818; FRS 18 Apr 1799; responsible for the code of signals adopted by the Admiralty in 1803 and used at the battle of Trafalgar; m. 19 Dec 1788 Elizabeth Moffat, eldest dau. of Capt. John Prince, EI Maritime Service; d. 11 Sep 1820. DNB.