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. 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 Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. In 1601 he was appointed

High Sheriff of Oxfordshire The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff is therefore much older ...

, and he was made a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

at the coronation of

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...

King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers Constitutional monarchy, regula ...

in 1603. On 29 June 1611 he was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, of

Wilcote Wilcote is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in the civil parish of North Leigh, in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about north of Witney. Wilcote was a hamlet of Cogges from at least the Middle Ages until the middle of the 19th ...

in the

Baronetage of England Baronets are hereditary titles awarded by the Crown. The current baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier, existing baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland and Great Britain. To be recognised as a baronet, it is necessary ...

. In 1618, Pope completed the reconstruction of the

family seat A family seat, sometimes just called seat, is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families t ...

Wroxton Abbey Wroxton Abbey is a Jacobean house in Oxfordshire, with a 1727 garden partly converted to the serpentine style between 1731 and 1751. It is west of Banbury, off the A422 road in Wroxton. It is now the English campus of Fairleigh Dickinson Univ ...

in the

Jacobean style The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James's reign, the ...

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 Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The titl ...

in the

Irish Peerage The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

for £2,500, and he was created Earl of Downe and Baron Pope of

Belturbet Belturbet (; ) is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It lies on the N3 road, around north of Cavan town and from Dublin. It is also located around south of the border with County Fermanagh, part of Northern Ireland, and is from Enniskillen. ...

on 16 October that year. 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 Sir Thomas Pope (150729 January 1559) was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a Member of Parliament, a wealthy landowner, and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Early life Pope was born at Deddington, near Banbury, O ...

; Pope's eldest son, the politician Sir William Pope, having predeceased him. He was buried in

Wroxton Wroxton is a village and civil parish in the north of Oxfordshire, England, about west of Banbury. The 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census recorded the parish's population as 546. Wroxton Abbey Wroxton Abbey is a Jacobean architecture, J ...

church, where he shares an elaborate memorial with his wife.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).

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Downe, William Pope, 1st Earl of 1573 births 1631 deaths 17th-century English landowners Earls in the Peerage of Ireland High sheriffs of Oxfordshire Knights of the Bath Peers of Ireland created by Charles I