Luke Pope

Early life and family

Luke Pope was born in the hamlet of Smethwick, Staffordshire, in 1740. Henry died in 1891 leaving an estate of £3,014. Another son was John Pope (1772-1850) who was the father of Luke Linnaeus Pope (fl. 1820s), a botanical artist who was partly named after the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Another grandson was Alexander Pope who ran the family's Handsworth nursery. He specialised in tulips and later in the shrubs and plants of North America. He was constable of that manor in 1796, and in 1802 bailiff. His views as a constable on the effect of tithes on the crops planted by local farmers were reported in William Pitt's survey of the agriculture of Staffordshire. In 1809 the Lord of Smethwick enfranchised a piece of copyhold land occupied by Pope for a fee of £75. He claimed on his deathbed to have spent over on tulips, the stock having been transferred to Handsworth by the time of his death where customers could inspect illustrations of the plants in bloom prepared by his grandson Luke Linnaeus Pope. Four quarto volumes were known in 1831, but in 1960, Miles Hadfield was not sure if they still existed. was acquired by Birmingham City Archives in 1998.

The firm, which also had premises in West Bromwich,