William Pope, 1st Earl of Downe
William Pope, 1st Earl of Downe (1573 – 2 June 1631), known as Sir William Pope, 1st Baronet from 1611 to 1628, was an English peer.
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Pope was the son of John Pope and Elizabeth Brocket, daughter of Sir John Brocket. He was a nephew of Sir Thomas Pope and he inherited his extensive estates in Oxfordshire.[1] In 1601 he was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, and he was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of James VI and I as King of England in 1603. On 29 June 1611 he was created a baronet, of Wilcote in the Baronetage of England. In 1618, Pope completed the reconstruction of the family seat at Wroxton Abbey in the Jacobean style at a cost of £6,000. The house was subsequently visited by King James I as a guest of Pope.
In 1628, Pope purchased an earldom in the Irish Peerage for £2,500, and he was created Earl of Downe and Baron Pope of Belturbet on 16 October that year.[2][3]
He married Anne Hopton, daughter of Sir Owen Hopton, in 1595. Upon his death in 1631, Pope was succeeded in his title by his grandson, Thomas Pope; Pope's eldest son, the politician Sir William Pope, having predeceased him. He was buried in Wroxton church, where he shares an elaborate memorial with his wife.[4]
References
- MacLeod, Catherine; Guinness, John (2018). "The Wroxton Larkins". The British Art Journal. 19 (1): 72. JSTOR 45093609. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- Thrush, Andrew (2010). "POPE, Sir William (1596-1624), of Cogges, Oxon". The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
His father, unmoved by the strictures of the Commons on the sale of honours, purchased an Irish earldom for £2,500 in 1628.
- Gadd, R. P. (1984). "A Short Account of the Peerage of Ireland". The Heraldry Society. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
He was in the end created Earl of Downe and Baron Pope of Belturbet.
- X.Y.Z. (Pseud.), 'Topographical description of Wroxton in Oxfordshire', Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 67 Pt. 1 (1797), pp. 106-10, at p. 108 (Google).