Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/141

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Fault,’ Indamora in the ‘Widow of Malabar,’ Arabella in ‘Such Things are,’ and Julia in the ‘Rivals,’ were played during the season, in which she had original parts in ‘Curiosity’ by ‘the late king of Sweden’ (Gustavus III), and Cumberland's ‘Eccentric Lover,’ and was the first Princess of Mantua in ‘Disinterested Love,’ taken by Hull from Massinger. On 15 Oct. 1798 she was Desdemona, and 12 Jan. 1799 the original Julia in Holman's ‘Votary of Wealth.’ On 16 March she was the first Lady Julia in T. Dibdin's ‘Five Thousand a Year,’ and, 8 April, Emma in ‘Birthday,’ by the same author. She probably played Elizabeth in the ‘Count of Burgundy,’ from Kotzebue, and was Mrs. Dervilla in ‘What is she?’ by a lady. For her benefit she played the Queen in ‘King Henry VIII.’ Next season saw her in Cordelia, 29 Oct. 1799. Two days later she was Juliana in Reynolds's ‘Management.’ On 16 Jan. 1800 she was the first Joanna of Montfaucon in ‘Joanna, a Romance of the Fourteenth Century,’ adapted by Cumberland from Kotzebue. One or two unimportant characters followed, and on 13 May 1800 she was Imogen and Amanthis in the ‘Child of Nature.’ In 1801 she accompanied her husband to Drury Lane, where, as Juliet, she made her first appearance on 1 Feb. On 2 March she was Lady Caroline Malcolm in the first production of Cumberland's ‘Serious Resolution.’ She also played Mrs. Lovemore in the ‘Way to keep him.’ On 14 Oct. 1802 she played Mrs. Beverley, on 9 Dec. Belvidera in ‘Venice Preserved,’ on 29 Jan. 1803 she was the first Caroline in Holcroft's ‘Hear both Sides,’ and on 4 May she was Mrs. Haller in the ‘Stranger.’ On 10 June, playing Desdemona, she was taken ill in the third act, and her place was taken by Mrs. Ansell, the Emilia. She was thought to be recovering, but on the 18th she had a fit of apoplexy, and expired in Half Moon Street, Piccadilly. She was buried on the 25th, in the same grave with her husband's first wife, Elizabeth Pope [q. v.], in Westminster Abbey. She was slender in figure and finely proportioned, had a sweet face and expression, a retentive memory, and a clear voice. She was credited in private with a good heart and engaging manners. She was an acceptable actress, but inferior in all respects to the first Mrs. Pope. The chief characteristics of her acting were tenderness and pathos. A portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee is in the Garrick Club. A three-quarter-length portrait by Shee, engraved by William Ward, was dated 1 April 1804.

[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Manager's Notebook; Monthly Mirror, vol. xvi.; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror; Thespian Dict.; Smith's Cat.; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 469; Marriage Registers of St. George's, Hanover Square, ii. 76.]

J. K.

POPE, Sir THOMAS (1507?–1559), founder of Trinity College, Oxford, was elder son of William Pope, a small landowner at Deddington, near Banbury, by his second wife, Margaret (d. 1557), daughter of Edmund Yate of Standlake. The Pope family, originally of Kent, had been settled in North Oxfordshire from about 1400 (E. Marshall, North Oxf. Arch. Soc. 1878, pp. 14–17). Thomas was about sixteen at the time of his father's death on 16 March 1523 (see Will and Inquis. post mortem 15 Sept. 1523, in Warton, App. i. and ii.*). His mother afterwards married John Bustard of Adderbury (d. 1534).

Thomas was educated at Banbury school and at Eton College (see Statutes of Trin. Coll. c. vii.), was subsequently articled to Mr. Croke (? Richard, comptroller of the hanaper), and by 1532 was one of the lower officials in the court of chancery. He seems to have risen by favour of Lord-chancellor Thomas Audley [q. v.], in whose house he was domiciled in 1535, and is described as his ‘servant’ in a letter of 28 March 1536 (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, x. 223). He and Sir Edward North were Audley's executors and residuary legatees. Pope was also on terms of intimacy with Sir Thomas More, to whom, on 5 July 1535, he brought the news that he was to be beheaded on the following day (see Warton, pp. 33–4).

On 5 Oct. 1532 Pope received a grant of the office of clerk of briefs in the Star-chamber, and on 15 Oct. 1532 he was granted the reversion of the valuable clerkship of the crown in chancery (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, v. 642, xiii. ii. 115). He became warden of the mint, &c., in the Tower of London on 13 Nov. 1534, and held the post till 9 Nov. 1536 (ib. vii. 558, xi. 564). At the same time he came to know and to correspond with Cromwell, who in 1536 procured him a nomination to be burgess of Buckingham (ib. x. 384, xiii. i. 545–6, 550, 572, ii. 10, 38). Extensive landed property was reconfirmed to him by act of parliament on 4 Feb. 1536 (ib. x. 87). On 26 June 1535 he obtained a grant of arms (Warton, App. ii.), and he was knighted on 18 Oct. 1537.

Meanwhile, on 24 April 1536, on the establishment of the court of augmentations of the king's revenue to deal with the property of the smaller religious houses then suppressed, Pope was created second officer and treasurer of the court, with a salary of 120l. (Cal. State Papers, xiii. ii. 372) and large fees. About 1541 Pope was superseded by Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) North. In January