Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/330

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Hope
324
Hope
353); Wellington Desp. Corresp. &c., i. ut supra. Among special biographical notices of Hopetoun may be mentioned those in Ann. Biog. 1823; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen, vol. ii.; Gent. Mag. 1823, pt. ii. p. 369–71.]

H. M. C.

HOPE, Sir JOHN (1765–1836), lieutenant-general, born 15 July 1765, was son of John Hope (1739–1785) [q. v.], by his wife Mary, only daughter of Eliab Breton of Norton, Nottinghamshire, and Forty Hill, Enfield. Charles Hope [q. v.], lord president of the court of session, and Vice-admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope [q. v.] were brothers. In November 1778 John was appointed a cadet in the regiment of Houstoun of the Scots brigade in the pay of Holland, and after serving as corporal and sergeant, was made ensign in the regiment, which was quartered at Bergen-op-Zoom, in December 1779, and marched with it to Maestricht. After being some time at home he rejoined the regiment at Maestricht on promotion to captain on 26 April 1782, and withdrew from the Dutch service, receiving English half pay. In 1787 he was brought on full pay as captain 60th royal Americans, but his company was reduced soon afterwards. In 1788 he was appointed to a troop in the 13th light dragoons, and served from November 1792 as aide-de-camp to Sir William Erskine (d. 1795) in the Flanders campaigns and in Germany. On 25 March 1795 Hope became major, and on 20 Feb. 1796 lieutenant-colonel of the 28th Duke of York's light dragoons. This regiment he commanded at the Cape of Good Hope until it was drafted, when he returned home, and in April 1799 was appointed to the 37th foot, which he commanded in the West Indies until November 1804. He then exchanged to a battalion of the 60th foot at home, and was for some time an assistant-adjutant-general in Scotland. He was deputy-adjutant-general under Lord Cathcart in Hanover in 1805, and at Copenhagen in 1807. After serving as a general officer on the staff in Scotland and in the Severn district, Hope proceeded to the Peninsula, and commanded a brigade of the 5th division at Salamanca. He was invalided home soon afterwards. Wellington wrote: ‘Major-General Hope I am sorry to lose, as he is very attentive to his duties’ (Gurwood, Well. Desp. vi. 56, 73). Hope afterwards held brigade commands in Ireland and in Scotland until promoted to lieutenant-general in 1819. He was made colonel of the 92nd highlanders in 1820, and transferred to the 72nd highlanders in 1823.

Hope was made a knight bachelor on 30 March 1821, and was a G.C.H. He married first, in 1806, Mary, only daughter and heiress of Robert Scott of Logie, and by her had three children; she died in 1813; secondly, Jane Hester, daughter of John Macdougall, and by her had five sons and five daughters. He died at his seat in Scotland in August 1836, aged 71.

[Foster's Peerage, under ‘Hopetoun;’ Cannon's Hist. Rec. 72nd Duke of Albany's Highlanders; Gent. Mag. 1836, pt. ii. p. 653.]

H. M. C.

HOPE, JOHN (1794–1858), Scottish judge, eldest son of Charles Hope [q. v.], lord president of the court of session, was born on 26 May 1794, and received some part of his education at the high school of Edinburgh. He was admitted an advocate on 23 Nov. 1816, and on Rae becoming lord advocate was appointed one of his deputes. On 25 June 1822 James Abercromby [q. v.] unsuccessfully moved in the House of Commons for the appointment of a committee of inquiry into the conduct of the lord advocate and the other law officers of the crown in Scotland in relation to the public press. Hope sent Abercromby a letter of protest, and was summoned to attend the house. He was heard at the bar in his own defence on 17 July following (Parl. Debates, new ser. vii. 1668–1673), but though it was unanimously agreed that he had been guilty of a breach of the privileges of the house, no further proceedings were taken in the matter. On the death of James Wedderburn in November of the same year, Hope was appointed by Lord Liverpool solicitor-general for Scotland, a post which he held until the formation of Lord Grey's ministry in 1830, when he was succeeded by Henry Cockburn. On 17 Dec. 1830 Hope was elected dean of the Faculty of Advocates in the place of Francis Jeffrey, in whose favour Hope had generously waived his claims to the chair in the previous year. In 1841 he succeeded David Boyle as lord justice clerk, taking his seat on the bench as president of the second division of the court of session on 16 Nov. 1841, and on 17 April 1844 was sworn a member of the privy council. Hope was an able and indefatigable judge. He presided over the second division of the civil court as well as at nearly all the trials of importance which took place in the high court of justiciary during his seventeen years of office. He died in Moray Place, Edinburgh, on 14 June 1858, from a sudden attack of paralysis, and was buried at Ormiston, near Tranent. He married in August 1825 Jessie Scott, daughter of Thomas Irvine of Shetland, by whom he had several children. His widow survived him, and died in Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, on 26 Jan. 1872, aged 79.