Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun

He was the son of John Hope of Hopetoun by a daughter of the 4th Earl of Haddington. His father, John Hope, purchased the barony of Niddry Castle from George Seton, 4th Earl of Winton around 1680. He also bought the neighbouring barony of Abercorn, with the office of heritable sheriff of the County of Linlithgow, from Sir Walter Seton.

His paternal grandfather was Sir James Hope of Hopetoun and paternal great-grandfather was Sir Thomas Hope, 1st Baronet of Craighall, Fife.

In 1681, John Hope was shire commissioner for Linlithgow in the Parliament of Scotland. The following year, his father drowned with the sinking of {{HMS|Gloucester|1660|6}} in 1682.{{cite book|editor1-last=Paul|editor1-first=Sir James Balfour|title=Volume 19, The Miscellany of Scottish History|publisher=The Scottish Historical Society|location=Scotland|page=105|url=http://digital.nls.uk/scottish-history-society-publications/browse/archive/127192869|accessdate=28 January 2018|chapter=The Diary of Sir James Hope, 1646-1654}} Traveling with the Duke of York, family tradition has that his father had secured a seat in a rescue boats but gave it up to the Duke of York. The tradition continues that in recognition of this act, Charles was created Earl of Hopetoun in the Peerage of Scotland by Queen Anne on 15 April 1703, shortly after reaching his majority.

The family estates and businesses, including lead mining, were managed on his behalf by his mother, Lady Margaret Hope of Hopetoun. She revived plan to build a church for their miners at Leadhills,Andrew Spicer, 'Church building and the Religious Landscape in Scotland', God's Bounty?: The Churches and the Natural World (Boydell & Brewer, 2010), pp. 263-5. and commenced the building of Hopetoun House.Miles Glendinning, Ranald MacInnes, Aonghus MacKechnie, History of Scottish Architecture'' (Edinburgh, 1996), p. 97.

Charles Hope supported the union with England. He later served as a Scottish representative peer at Westminster, from 1722 until his death. Lord Hopetoun acted as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1723, and was Governor of the Bank of Scotland from 1740 until his death. He was created a Knight of the Thistle in 1738.

Around 1738/9 he bought the entire estate of Ormiston from John Cockburn of Ormiston who had ironically bankrupted himself due to the cost of agricultural improvements and building the "model village" of Ormiston in 1736.Scottish Garden Buildings by Tim Buxbaum p.14

In 1699, Charles Hope married Lady Henrietta Johnstone, daughter of William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale and the former Sophia Fairholm (a daughter of John Fairholm of Craigiehall). Their children include:{{cite web |title=History of the Hope Family |url=https://hopetoun.co.uk/about/history/ |website=hopetoun.co.uk |publisher=Hopetoun |access-date=9 February 2022}}

• Lady Sophia Hope (1702–1761), who married, as his second wife, James Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Findlater, in 1723.
• John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun (1704–1781), who married Lady Anne Ogilvy, second daughter of James Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Findlater.{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire |date=1866 |publisher=Harrison |pages=300–301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3MaAAAAYAAJ |access-date=9 February 2022 |language=en}}
• Lady Henrietta Hope (1706–1745), who married, as his first wife, Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier of Merchistoun, after 1729.
• Lady Margaret Hope (1708–1778), who married John Dundas of Duddingston in 1745.
• Charles Hope-Weir (1710–1791), who married Catherine Weir, daughter and heiress of Sir William Weir of Blackwood, Bt. After her death in 1743, he married Lady Anne Vane, a daughter of Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington; he married thirdly to Helen Dunbar, a daughter of George Dunbar of Leuchold.
• Lady Helen Hope (1711–1778), who married James Watson of Saughton, in 1737.
• Lady Christian Hope (1714–1799), who married Thomas Graham of Balgowan in 1743.{{Cite book|last=Thomas Bailey Saunders|url=http://archive.org/details/lifeandlettersj00saungoog|title=The Life and Letters of James Macpherson|date=1894|publisher=S. Sonnenschein & co .; Macmillan & co|others=University of Michigan|pages=63–64|language=English}}
• Lady Charlotte Hope (1720–1788), who married the Thomas Erskine, Lord Erskine, eldest son and heir apparent of John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar and Lady Margaret Hay (daughter of Thomas Hay, 7th Earl of Kinnoull), in 1741.

Lord Hopetoun died on 26 February 1742 and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, John.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Hope, Charles (1681-1742)}}

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Category:1681 births

Category:1742 deaths

Category:Nobility from West Lothian

Category:Earls of Hopetoun

Category:Peers of Scotland created by Queen Anne

Category:Scottish representative peers

Category:Knights of the Thistle

Charles

Category:Shire Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland

Category:Governors of the Bank of Scotland

Category:Lords High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Category:Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1702–1707