William Pope KB (bef. 1573 - 1631)

Born before 15 Oct 1573 in England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Jun 1631 after age 57 in England

Biography

William Pope was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

William Pope was the only surviving son of John Pope, of Wroxton and Wilcot, Oxfordshire, and his second wife, Elizabeth Brocket and was baptised 15 October 1573 at Wroxton.^[1]

His uncle Sir Thomas Pope had originally given the manors of Wroxton and Balscott to his younger brother and heir, John Pope on a 99 year lease in 1551, but in 1554 he conveyed the manors to his new foundation of Trinity College, Oxford. However the day after this settlement he is alleged to have settled the same properties in in tail male to his brother John.^[2] On John Pope's death 24 June 1583^[1] then it seems likely that his son William succeeded to Wroxton, though under a lease to Trinity College.^[2]

He was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire 1601-02, and created a Knight of the Bath (KB) at the coronation of James I, 25 July 1603, and a Baronet as "of Wilcote, Oxon" 29 June 1611.^[1]

He spent £6000 in the second decade of the 17th century on erecting a new manor house in Wroxton "of 3 stories, with stonemullioned windows and numerous gables"^[2]

Marriage and children

He married in 1595, Anne, (born 1561), daughter of Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and his wife, Anne Itchingham, and widow of Henry Wentworth, 3rd Lord Wentworth (who died in 1593),^[1] with whom she had four children. ^[3]

William Pope and Anne Hopton had three children:^[4],^[5]

1. Sir William Pope, baptised 17 October 1596 at Wroxton, knighted 28 August 1616, but died in August 1624, before his father, and before his father was created Earl, having married and had issue;
2. Sir Thomas Pope, born 1598, eventually succeeded as 3rd Earl of Downe;
3. Lady Anne Pope, buried at Wroxton 13 July 1629.

Later life

His wife died probably in early May 1625 and was buried at Wroxton on 10 May.^[1]

On 16 October 1628 he was created 1st Earl of Downe, and Baron Pope of Bealtirbit (Belturbet), county Cavan, both in the Peerage of Ireland, but died just three years later, on 2 June 1631^[5],^[1] and was buried 4 June at Wroxton.^[1] A "fair black and wavy marble tomb ... under an arch supported by five Ionic black marble pillars" was erected against the south wall of Wroxton Church with representations of both William Pope and his wife Anne.^[5]

His will dated the 31 December 1630 was proved on 18 June 1631. His grandson Thomas Pope the son of his eldest son William succeeded him as 2nd Earl of Downe^[1] but his younger son also named Thomas Pope, seized the manors of Wroxton and Balscott, "the evidences to the property, and the personal estate" of his father, based on a supposed death-bed will.^[2]

Research Notes

Disputed Son

Marlyn Lewis' website, Our Royal, Titled, Noble and Commoner Ancestors & Cousins has in an entry for Lt.Col, Nathaniel Pope, Gent where his parents are William Pope, 1st Earl of Downe, and his wife Anne Hopton but the source that appear to be cited for this is a, presumably unsourced, Ancestry.com family tree.

Several sources confirm there were only three children as per the above biography, and there are no reliable sources that confirm that Nathaniel Pope was their child and such a relationship must be considered as fraudulent.

Also the line of the Earls of Downe became extinct in 1668 when Thomas Pope, 4th Earl of Downe, another grandson of William Downe, 1st Earl of Downe, died without issue.^[6] Had Nathaniel Pope, been the son of William Pope and Anne Hopton, then one of his male descendants would have inherited the title.

The profiles for William Pope and his wife Anne Hopton in Marlyn Lewis' website, also both rely solely on Ancestry.com family trees and as a consequence have some major errors when compared to reliable sources.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom: Extant Extinct of Dormant, 2nd ed, vol. 4, revised and edited by Hon. Vicary Gibbs & H. Arthur Doubleday, London: St Catherine Press, 1916. Digital image, Internet Archive, pp. 449-450, https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo04coka/page/448/mode/2up : accessed 8 January 2022.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} "Parishes: Wroxton," in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 9, Bloxham Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel and Alan Crossley (London: Victoria County History, 1969), pp. 171-188. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol9/pp171-188. : accessed 8 January 2022.
3. ↑ Rutton, William Loftie, Three branches of the family of Wentworth, London: Mitchell & Hughes, 1891. Digital image, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293001085111&view=1up&seq=174 : accessed 8 January 2022.
4. ↑ Baker, George, The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton, vol. 1, London: John Bowyer Nicholas & Son, 1822. p. 707. Digital image, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/HistoryAndAntiquitiesOfTheCountyOfNorthamptonBakerVol1/page/n708/mode/1up : accessed 8 January 2022.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Turner, William Henry, (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Oxford: Taken in the years 1566, 1574 and in 1634, The Harleian Society, vol. 5, London: 1871. p. 152. Digital image, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/visitationsofcou57harv/page/n173/mode/2up : accessed 10 January 2022.
6. ↑ The Complete Peerage, vol. 4, p. 451.

See also:

• Downe, Earl of (I, 1628 - 1668) Cracroft's Peerage