2. Edinburgh Hopes.
The Edinburgh Hopes were basically of merchant stock and appear before but mainly in the Edinburgh Burgess Rolls of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and had their origins in northern Europe, namely France and Holland. The name Hope here probably came from Holland. The first to appear in the rolls was John Hope (c 1472-1554) who was originally a royal trumpeter but he eventually owned property in Leith and the High Street and owned shops and appeared to be involved in trading. This origin conforms to that put forward by the Hope family of Hopetoun House see the history page at Hopetounhouse.com. John Hope also built himself a fine house, with a private chapel, in the High Street. It is recorded later that on the lintel of the house was the name of Johnne Hope with a defaced coat of arms; on the lowest crowstep there was another armorial shield with his initials. This building was demolished in the 1800s. John Hope had probably three sons - Edward, Alexander and Henry. Henry had possibly five sons, one was Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall the ancestors of the Craighalls and the Hopetouns, another was James Hope the ancestor of the Hopes of Amsterdam. The other sons were Henry, David and James. One of the latter, it is said lost at sea, was the ancestor of a line of Hopes of Lancashire.
Hope and Co was founded by the Amsterdam Hopes and a branch in Edinburgh High Street appears on the Apprentice Rolls records of the 18th century as John Hope & Co. There is a surprisingly large number of Hopes appearing on the Edinburgh Apprentice Rolls of the 17th and 18th centuries indicating an increase of that surname in the Capital but nobody from the Highlands. Extracts from the rolls appear as Appendix 1 to this page. Also this was the time of the agricultural revolution in Scotland and at the forefront of this was the 2nd and 3rd Earls of Hopetoun who owned large tracts of land in East and West Lothian as well as elsewhere. This was also the time of rebellion - 1745 - Prince Charles Edward Stewart - Culloden. The Hopetouns appear in Robert Burns' ballad of about 1880 titled When First I Saw " The following from the fourth verse - "Had I Dundas's whole estate, or Hopetoun's wealth to shine in". The bracketing of the Hopetouns with the illustrious Dundas Family indicates how far the Hopetouns had come - some astute marriages between the two families helped! Another grandson, of John Hope was Thomas Hope (1573-1646) a self made lawyer and was Advocate to Charles I. He was the legal brains behind the National Covenant of 1638 ensuring that it was not treasonous. Thomas Hope became a baronet in 1628 and took the title of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall Bt. Craighall was the name of his original family home in Fife.
Sir Thomas had three surviving sons. The eldest is the ancestor of the senior line the Hopes of Craighall. The Line of the Hopes of Kerse has died out. The youngest son James is the ancestor of the Hopes of Hopetoun represented by the Marquis of Linlithgow. Their home Hopetoun House a magnificent Adam mansion a few miles west of Edinburgh is well worth a visit and their website www.hopetounhouse.com. has more family history.
View from roof terrace of Hopetoun House showing the Forth rail bridge with the suspension road bridge in front.
The senior line of Craighall is the claimant to the chiefship of the name of Hope but only those of Scottish descent The following from the FAQ page of the English College of Arms website :-
"The first point to note is that the apparently quite widespread, but new, belief that everyone has a clan, and can wear some specific tartan or display a clan badge, is quite erroneous. Only those of Scottish descent can be associated with a clan in any way. The clan system is an entirely Scottish phenomenon, and consists of a few groups of families, centred on old and historically prominent families, with other associated families (some of the same name as the principal lineage, but many not). To count as a clan, with a chief, these groups need to be recognised as such by the chief Scottish herald, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, and not the English College of Arms."
This statement by the English College of Arms does seem pretty definite and is probably applicable to many family names. But it is a problem for the Hope surname as the name straddles both sides of the mutual border. What are the criteria required to be accepted as being of Scottish descent? DNA is frought in this case. Maybe it can only be proved when you are dead and the postmortum reveals the word Scotland blazoned on your heart!
Hope Family Tartan.
The Hopetoun tartan is very similar to the Chief's tartan and is the uniform of the guides at Hopetoun House.
The following simple chart explains how I think the Scottish Hopes evolved showing the two routes of the name, probably from different derivations, into Scotland and the routes of emigration..
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