1.Introduction - Derivation of the Name.
The spelling of Hope had many variations in the older Scottish documents that were originally in Norman French or Latin. The following are examples – Hopes, Hop, Houppe, Houpe, Houp, Hoip, Houip, Hoppe and others. Hopes and Hoppe still survive as separate surnames but certainly in Scotland they are few in number. The maps on the Surname Profiling site mentioned in the prologue indicate that the heartlands of the Hopes and Hoppe are not the same as Hope and that the name Hoppe is imported from Hungary/Polond!
What would appear to be a different but similar surname appears in the records as Hepe which survives to the present as Heap or Heaps.
The following is a selection of possible derivations of the surname Hope:-
a) From Middle English - a small enclosed valley, a hollow among the hills.
b) From Old English – a piece of enclosed land.
c) From Old Norse – a landlocked bay, a haven.
d) From Flemish – a heap, a pile.
e) From the word hops as in brewing.
f) From Dutch – Hoop (Hope).
g) From French - haut (high). (This is from my own observation and I have not seen this possible origin mentioned anywhere.)
The origin of the name Hope in Scotland could be one or more of the above and is rather complex.
A small enclosed valley is a popular derivation which is valid for the Borders area where in Roxburgh, Selkirkshire and Peeblesshire, particularly in the Ettrick Forest, there are many such valleys with a name including Hope as a suffix and in fewer cases as a prefix. The people living in these valleys must have taken the valley name as their surname. Examples of these valley names taken from around Tweedsmuir are Tweedhope, Priesthope, Carterhope, Kingledoreshope, Gameshope, Winterhope, Hopecarton etc. A lot more about this later in the section about the Border Hopes.
On the north coast of Scotland there is an area that was known as Hope that includes Loch and Ben Hope and the emonymous hamlet. A derivation from this area is possible as the Norse influence did spread southwards along the west coast as far as the Solway and even the Isle of Man and indeed spread inland through Ayrhire to Lanarkshire. The surname of Obrinkle appearing in the Ragman's Roll is interesting - See Section 3 Border Hopes. The Ob and Hob representing a haven in Norse does appear as a prefix in place names such as the west coast town of Oban.
The linking of Hope with a haven, either land based or maritime is valid. On the Firth of Forth just west of the bridges is a point known as St. Margaret’s Hope. This is where Margaret Atheling, future Queen of Scots and Saint, stepped ashore with her father Edgar Atheling a saxon claimant to the English throne. They were fleeing England by sea after the Norman invasion of 1066 and were blown off course. They had made a previous landfall in Northumbria and that site is known as St. Margaret’s Haven.
Another example of this, which coincidently is in the same area, is in Kidnapped a novel set in 1751 by Robert Louis Stevenson. “Just then we came to the top of the hill, and looked down on the ferry and the Hope. The Firth of Forth narrows at this point to the width of a good sized river, which makes a convenient ferry going north, and turns the upper reach into a land-locked haven, for all manner of ships.”
The emblem of a ship’s anchor has become an emblem of hope and the Hope family have used it to good effect in their canting heraldry. There is a pub in Islington London named the Hope & Anchor there is also a Hope and Anchor pub in Wigton in Cumbria.
The spelling of the brewing hops was usually spelt hoip according to lists of charges in 1575 for the transporting of merchandise from the docks at Leith (Port for Edinburgh) to the warehouses.
It was also suggested by Nisbet that the French family of H'oublons of Picardy (oublon = Hops) were the origin of the surname - unlikely in my view.
At dysart in Fife there is the following ancient inscription above a doorway My hoip is in the Lord 1583. Whether the inscription is that old is doubtful but someone at sometime thought that hope meaning esperance was spelt hoip.
Hope meaning esperance a virtue of the mind is a wonderful possible derivation of the surname and the Hoops of Holland could be a source. The name survives in Holland principally as Van Der Hoop.
What unbalances the Hope name in Scotland is one particular family, namely the descendants of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall Bt. (1573-1646) – Lord Advocate to Charles I. This family over the centuries has added a lustre to the name resulting in the Scottish Hopes punching well above their weight. A dramatic example of this is that in 1995 in the House of Lords there were seven peers with the surname of Hope. This is a record number of peers with the same surname being members of the House of Lords at the same time. Five of the seven peers were Scottish all being descendants of the above Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall! These five peers being Glendevon, Craighead, Linlithgow (Marquis), Rankeilor and Hope-Johnstone (Earl). The other two were English, one was the Rev. David Hope then Bishop of London subsequently Archbishop of York and Hope-Morley. Several descendants of Sir Thomas settled in England but took the rainbow crest with them to claim their proud Scottish ancestry.
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