Education
He was educated at Banbury school and Eton College, and entered the Court of Chancery.
He was educated at Banbury school and Eton College, and entered the Court of Chancery.
Early As clerk of briefs in the star chamber, warden of the mint (1534–1536), clerk of the Crown in chancery (1537), and second officer and treasurer of the Court of Augmentations for the settlement of the confiscated property of the smaller religious foundations, he obtained immense wealth and influence. In this last office he was superseded in 1541, but from 1547 to 1553 he was again employed as fourth officer "He could have rode," said Aubrey, "in his owne lands from Cogges (by Witney) to Banbury, about 18 miles." He established his country seat at Tittenhanger, Hertfordshire.
In 1537 he was knighted.
He was High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire for 1552 and 1557. In 1556, he was sent to reside as guardian in Elizabeth"s house.
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 Doctor 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 know simply as on 8 March 1556.
The foundation provided for a president, twelve fellows and eight scholars, with a schoolhouse at Hooknorton.
The number of scholars was subsequently increased to twelve, the schoolhouse being given up. Pope died at Clerkenwell on 29 January 1559, and was buried at Street Stephen"s, Walbrook. But his remains were subsequently removed to, where his widow erected a semi-Gothic alabaster monument to his memory.
He was Member of for Buckingham in 1536 and for Berkshire in 1539. The religious changes made by Edward VI were not to his liking, but at the beginning of Mary"s reign he became a member of the privy council. 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.