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Popp Fought The Law
Alan LLeonard ttells hhow PPostcards
Celebrated JJacob’s LLong BBattle oover
Sunday TTrading
Postcards of the Edwardian era illustrate and exemplify
a vast range of topics and occasions but unique
among them must surely be the set of six satirically
celebrating their originator receiving over 400 convictions
for defying the law week by week through
eight years, from 1902 to 1910.
The transgressor became
a respected citizen of High
Wycombe, where he spent
forty active years. Following
his death there on 6th
April 1939, aged 65, the
Bucks Free Press published
an obituary setting his life
in focus. It began:
“Mr Jacob Popp, former
tourist guide and
accomplished linguist, who
came to High Wycombe
many years ago to establish
a tobacconist’s and
newsagent’s business in
what was then Frogmore
Gardens, may be said to
have contributed something
to the history of High
Wycombe. Certainly his
contribution to the town’s
history was unusual, but
none the less any would-be
historian could hardly
afford to ignore the almost
world-wide notoriety Mr.
Popp secured for himself by
the simple and original - if
somewhat expensive -
expedient of defying the
law for more than eight
years. Mr. Popp, indeed,
may be ranked among the
pioneers, for he was, in
truth, a pioneer in defiance
of the old Sunday Observance
Act of 1677”.
Who was Jacob Popp?
His full name was Jacob
Ivanovitch Popp. He was
born in 1873 at Pernau, a
port on the Gulf of Riga,
now in Estonia but then part
of a Baltic province of
Tsarist Russia.
It is not known when
he came to England,
whether as a young man on
his own or earlier as a child
with his family, emigrating
from Russia for some combination
of economic, religious
or political reasons.
‘Popp’ may have been a
convenient shortening of
his original Russian surname.
Jacob Popp had evidently
established himself
in England as a personable
young man in his twenties,
for in March 1899 he got
married at Sevenoaks to a
Kentish girl, Annie Kellaway.
Within a year or two
Popp had somehow found
his way to High Wycombe,
where he set himself up in
his own business, in a good
trading location, flanked by
a public house, ‘coffee tavern’,
drapers and butchers
etc. Living ‘over the shop’ at
23 Frogmore Gardens, he
was recorded there by the
Census of April 1901. It listed
him as working “on his
16 Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009
own account, at home”,
then aged 27, with his wife
Annie (29) and one-year-old
Ivy, the first of his four
daughters. She had been
born at Stourbridge, where
Popp may have resided
briefly before settling in
High Wycombe.
Staying with him on
census night was his Kentish
brother-in-law, Albert
Kellaway, 35, described as
‘independent’. If he had private
means, perhaps in
some measure he had
assisted Jacob Popp’s business
venture?
The census-taker
recorded Popp as born in
Livonia, Russia, and being a
‘Russian subject.’ Most of
Livonia became part of
Latvia in 1918, but its northern
section, largely inhabited
by Estonians, was incorporated
into the neighbouring
Baltic republic of Estonia.
Presumably Jacob
Popp became a British naturalised
subject as soon as
he was able to apply as a
permanent resident.
In an interview with the
correspondent of New York
Times in March 1908 Popp
recalled:
When Charles the Second reigned as King
Some funny Laws he made,
And one of them was that to stop
All kinds of Sunday Trade.
When he was dead the people saw
This law was an abuse,
In fact that it was like the King - Of very little use.
On one fine day the
Councillors
Of Wycombe Town all met,
And said “We must enforce
the Law
For we’ve done nothing yet.
To lessen either Rate or Tax
would surely be a crime,
Let’s start with this old
musty Law
Of Charles the Second’s
time.”
He threatened Fine, Imprisonment,
“The Stocks” he even said,
“Would be the fate of him who brought
This Law upon his head.”
Would you believe: this awful man
Whose name is Jacob Popp
Just laughed at him and Sunday next
Was serving in his shop.
They dug it
up and looked around
To see on whom to drop
And finally they found a
man
Whose name is Jacob Popp.
They summoned their Head
Constable
And unto him did say:
“Go, tell J.Popp of his vile
crime
And how we’ll make him
pay.”
“I came to High
Wycombe and acquired a
business at this little shop.
After a time I began to open
on Sundays and did a good
trade. Then, one Sunday
afternoon, the chief constable
came in and said unless
I closed up I would be summonsed.
I declined to close,
with the result that a summons
was issued against
me on the Monday (21 January
1902). It was taken out
under the statue of Charles
the Second and charged
that ‘I on a certain date,
being the Lord’s Day, commonly
called Sunday, did at
Chepping Wycombe, in the
borough aforesaid, unlawfully
do and exercise certain
labour, business and work
in the ordinary calling of a
tobacconist and confectioner,
the same not being a