The Origins of the Scottish Surname Hope.
and Notes on Some Older Families of that Name.
At the outset I must stress that I am an amateur and not a professional historian or genealogist. What follows has been gleaned from many sources leavened with my own take on these sources and my own research. Dates on the following pages are in the format dd-mm-yyyy. The Hope families of the Scottish Borders would have acquired their Surname while already resident in the area but others already with the Surname would arrived in Scotland later. The following chart shows how I believe the ancestors of the Hopes came to Scotland and how the name dispersed. This shows the general drift but there would also have been much to and fro movement.
The Hopes in Scotland can be divided into two separate groups although this may seem a bit simplistic I do believe that there was a core of Hopes in Edinburgh (Edinburgh Hopes) and a core of Hopes in the Borders (Border Hopes) that had on the face of it very little commonality apart from their name that possibly came from totally different derivations and appearing for the first time in the Scottish records at different times. The Border Hopes were first recorded in 1296 in the era now known as the First War of Independence but they would have been in the area long before this and were involved in the sheep farming business. While the Edinburgh Hopes evolving from a background of merchant/banking stock in the 14th/15th centuries. There could well have been an earlier infusion between the two groups before they gradually merged into one armigerous Scottish family with a Clan Chief - the Clan Chief being descended from the Edinburgh Hopes.
I have divided my research into eleven sections which can be accessed individually from the Contents List on this page. At the end of each section there is an option to continue to the next section directly or return to this page and select another section.
Contents. Click on section below.
1) Introduction - Derivation of the Surname Hope.
2.1) Scottish Border Hopes before 1296 AD New
2.2) Scottish Border Hopes after 1296 AD
3) Edinburgh (Scotland) Hopes. Merchants, Craighall Clan Chief, Hopetoun etc.
During the research of the Hope Families of Scotland other Hope families from elsewhere came to light and this information follows:-
4) North Wales - Hopes of Broughton, Mouats, Gordon-Hope. Flintshire.
7) Irish Hopes - Ulster, Co Monaughan, Westmeath.
8) Hope Early Colonial Settlers.- America, Jamaica, Barbados.
9) Hope Family Heraldry.- Scottish, English, Irish and Dutch.
Appendix 1. Extracts from the Edinburgh Apprentice Rolls.
Although I am concentrating on the Scottish Hopes there were obviously very many people with that surname elsewhere in the UK and also in Ireland. Interesting maps showing the spread of the surname in the UK can be found at the Surname Profiling site operating by UCL www.gbnames.publicprofiler.org. A copy of map from this site is below and shows the name principally straddling the Scottish/English Border - the Lothians, and also in Cumbria.
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