Thomas Pope

Thomas Pope
Born	c. 1507
Died	29 January 1559 Clerkenwell
Position held	Member of the 1536 Parliament, Member of the 1539-40 Parliament

Sir Thomas Pope (c. 1507 – 29 January 1559), was a prominent public servant in mid-16th-century England, a

As early as 1555, he had begun to arrange for the endowment of a college at Oxford, for which he bought the site and buildings of Durham College, the Oxford house of the abbey of Durham, from George Owen and William Martyn. He received a royal charter for the establishment and endowment of a college of the "Holy and Undivided Trinity" (now known simply as Trinity College) on 8 March 1556.^[1]

The foundation provided for a president, twelve fellows and eight scholars, with a schoolhouse at Hook Norton. The number of scholars was subsequently increased to twelve, the schoolhouse being given up. On 28 March 1556, the members of the college were put in possession of the site, and they were formally admitted on 29 May 1556.^[1]

Death

Pope died at Clerkenwell on 29 January 1559, and was buried at St Stephen's, Walbrook; but his remains were subsequently removed to Trinity College, where his widow erected a semi-Gothic alabaster monument to his memory.^[3]

Personal life

Pope was married three times, to Elizabeth Gunston, Margaret (Townsend) and Elizabeth (Blount), but left no children.^[4] Much of his property was left to charitable and religious foundations, and the bulk of his Oxfordshire estates passed to the family of his brother, John Pope of Wroxton, and his descendants, the viscounts Dillon and the earls of Guilford and barons North.^[5]

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pope, Sir Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–88.