Dr. Warton, we have seen, in his _Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope_, 1780, vol. ii., informs us, that he learned from Dr. Bolton, Dean of Carlisle, that he had heard from a Mr. Potenger, a cousin of Pope, that Pope's grandfather was _a clergyman of the Church of England living in Hampshire_. This has been accepted by Mr. Roscoe, and others who have written on the life of Pope since 1780; but, though attempts have been made, no one has hitherto succeeded in establishing the truth of Mr. Potenger's statement, by singling him out from amongst the Hampshire clergy of his time, and showing his position. In looking over the list of beneficed clergymen in the county of Hants, in the period within which he lived, presented to us by the Book of Compositions for First Fruits, I find _only one person of the name of Pope_, and his name was Alexander. This of itself would be sufficient to support Mr. Potenger's account; and to set before us the person for whom search has before been unsuccessfully made. Then as to his residence and position in the Church, we find in these books of Compositions:-- 1. On the 31st of January, 1631, Alexander Pope compounded for the first fruits of the rectory of Thruxton, in the county of Hants. 2. On November 23, 1633, he compounded for the first fruits of the prebend of Middleton. 3. And on May 23, 1639, for the first fruits of the prebend of Ichen-Abbots. As he held Thruxton till his death, he must be considered in the light of a clergyman possessed of good preferment, in fact, as belonging to the superior class of the clergy in the diocese of Winchester. Thruxton is a rectory in the neighbourhood of Andover; and Ichen-Abbots is in Bountesborough hundred, a few miles north of Winchester. Why this living and Middleton are called prebends, the only livings in the county so designated, we shall know better when the labours of some sufficient topographer have been directed upon Hampshire. The next step was to ascertain whether anything respecting himself or his family could be found at Thruxton; and in this inquiry I received the most obliging attention from the officiating minister, who examined the church and went through the register to see whether any memorial existed of persons of the name of Pope. The result was less satisfactory than I had hoped: for it appears that there is no memorial of him in the church, and the register supplies us with no information touching himself or family, except the following entry amongst the burials:-- "1645. February 21.--Alexander Pope, minister of Thruxton, was buried."