William H. Pope attended and graduated from Harvard College, 1817-1821. He was an attorney. In 1832 he became president of the branch of the U.S. Bank, was the second president of the Bank of Kentucky, 1837-40, and president of W.H. Pope & Co. wholesaler. His home, now known as Bonnycastle, was built in 1825/35 upon his father's estate on Bardstown Rd. It served as the private preparatory Kentucky Home School for Girls from 1927 until the school was moved in 1948 to the Jefferson Davis Stewart house at 2305 Douglas Blvd. Bonnycastle is now hidden by the Highland Vineyard Church at 1649 Cowling Avenue. Later they lived on the east side of 5th Street between Walnut and Chestnut Streets. The streets of Pope, William, and H in Louisville were named for him. He married in 1826, Mary Elizabeth Wilson (1807-63), daughter of Dr. Daniel (1775-1831) and Henrietta Johnson Wilson (-1858), of Louisville. Their eleven children were Cynthia Sturgess (1827-53); Wallace (1830-91); Thomas Wilson (1833-34); Henrietta Wilson (1835-89); Minor Sturgess (1836-90) who served in Co. H, 1st Ky. Infantry and later in Co. C, 2nd Ky. Cavalry (CSA); Mary N. (1838-46); Lucinda Selden (1840-70); Kate Anderson (1842-76); William Frederick (1844-62); Dr. Henry Duncan (1845-77); and Charles Pope (1847-71) who was an attorney.and later president of W.H. Pope & Co. wholesaler in Louisville.

William H. Pope was buried in the Pope family cemetery behind the mansion located at 2116 Edgehill Road. His daughter, Kate Anderson Pope (1842-76)(dsp), in her will left money for the erection of a church at the family graveyard. The church was to be given to the trustees of Christ Church (Episcopal) in return for the trustees preserving and protecting the graveyard. The dilemma facing the executor was that the graveyard was only a 1/4 of an acre and the property around the graveyard had been sold. The executor instead purchased a lot in Cave Hill Cemetery where Kate was reinterred from the graveyard. In 1881, her parents and three siblings were also removed from the graveyard and reinterred in her lot in Cave Hill Cemetery. In 2014-2015, the remains of the 23 others in the graveyard were disinterred and removed to Kate’s lot in Cave Hill Cemetery by archaeologist Jay Stottman through the efforts of James H. Barr III.

See 1860-70 Census, Louisville, Ky.; Will of Kate Anderson Pope, 9 Will Book 156, Jefferson County, Ky.; William H. Pope Bible (donated to Filson Historical Society in Louisville); J. Stoddard Johnston, Memorial History of Louisville From Its First Settlement To The Year 1896 (Chicago & New York, 1896), II: 646-647; Samuel W. Thomas, Crescent Hill Revisited (Louisville: George Rogers Clark Press, 1987), 7 (1858 Map of Louisville shows property owned by Pope heirs); Samuel W. Thomas, The Architectural History of Louisville, 1778-1900 (Louisville: Filson Historical Society, 2009), 46 (picture of Bonnycastle); Samuel W. Thomas, Cherokee Triangle (Louisville: Butler Book Publishing, 2003), 41-42 (photo of Bonnycastle); James Houston Barr III, Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Pope, c1610-1660, of Virginia, Ancestor of Washington, Governors and Legislators, History of His Descendants (Louisville, Ky. 2018), 362.