John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun

Hopetoun was the only son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, by his second wife Jane or Jean Oliphant.{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-13731|title=Hope, John, fourth earl of Hopetoun (1765–1823), army officer|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/13731 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }} His mother died when he was only one year old. He was commissioned into the 10th Light Dragoons in 1784. He sat as Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire from 1790 to 1800.

He took part in the capture of the French West Indies and Spanish West Indies in 1796 and 1797. In 1799 he was sent to Den Helder as Deputy Adjutant-General and was present at the Battle of Bergen and the Battle of Castricum. In 1801 he was sent to Cairo and then to Alexandria to take the surrender of the French garrisons there. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in June 1805.{{London Gazette|issue=15817|page=797|date=18 June 1805}}{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WstDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA369|title=The Gentleman's Magazine|year=1823|access-date=4 December 2015}}

He commanded a division during the advance into Spain and commanded the British left at the Battle of Corunna in 1809, succeeding to overall command when Sir John Moore was killed. Later that year he commanded the reserve army during the Walcheren Campaign. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and was admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1812. He then commanded the 1st Division under The Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Nivelle and at the Battle of the Nive in 1813. He was captured fighting the French sortie at the Battle of Bayonne in 1814.{{Cite book|title=The Napoleonic Wars Data Book|last=Smith|first=Digby|publisher=Greenhill|year=1998|isbn=1-85367-276-9|pages=524}}

He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Linlithgowshire from 1816 to 1823. On 17 May 1814, two years before he succeeded in the earldom, he was raised to the peerage in his own right as Baron Niddry, of Niddry Castle in the County of Linlithgow. In 1816 he succeeded his elder half-brother as fourth Earl of Hopetoun.

File:John Hope the 4th Earl of Hopetoun statue, Edinburgh.jpg

He died in Paris, France on 27 August 1823.

In 1798 Lord Hopetoun married firstly Elizabeth Hope Vere (or Weir) of Craigiehall, daughter of Charles Hope-Weir. They had no children. After her death in 1801, he married secondly, in 1803, Louisa Dorothea Wedderburn, daughter of John Wedderburn of Ballendean, and granddaughter of Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/antientandmoder00woodgoog |quote=jp wood cramond. |title=The Antient and Modern state of the Parish of Cramond |last=Wood |first=John Philip |authorlink=John Philip Wood |publisher=John Paterson, Edinburgh |year=1794 |accessdate=15 October 2007|pages=150–151}} By his second wife Hopetoun had ten sons; he was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, John.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 2357 His seventh son was Louis Hope.{{Citation |last=Morrison |first=A. A. |title=Louis Hope (1817–1894) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hope-louis-3791 |access-date=2024-06-16 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}{{cite web|title=Former Members|publisher=Parliament of Queensland|year=2015|url=http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/former/bio?id=1349697840|accessdate=5 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402151915/http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/former/bio?id=1349697840|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}

Following Lord Hopetoun's death, the Hopetoun Monument was erected on Byres Hill, East Lothian, in 1824.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB10831|desc=HOPETOUN MONUMENT|cat=B|access-date=20 December 2018}} This was followed in 1826 by a similar monument on Mount Hill in Fife.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB17428|desc=MOUNT HILL, HOPETOUN MONUMENT (TO SIR JOHN HOPE OF OVER RANKEILOUR)|cat=B|access-date=20 December 2018|fewer-links=yes}} In 1824 the city of Edinburgh commissioned a bronze statue of Lord Hopetoun, by Thomas Campbell, and originally designed as a centrepiece for Charlotte Square in 1829, but which was eventually placed in St Andrew Square in 1834, in front of Dundas House where he had acted as vice governor of the bank.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num= LB27862|desc=ST ANDREW SQUARE, MONUMENT TO JOHN, 4TH EARL OF HOPETOUN |cat=A|access-date=20 December 2018|fewer-links=yes}} The text on the latter is by Sir Walter Scott.{{cite web|url=http://www.oldedinburghclub.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/BOEC-OS/Volume-22.pdf|title=Old Edinburgh Club|volume=22}} In the wake of the George Floyd protests, a plaque was installed by its owners in June 2020 on the statue which reflected Lord Hopetoun's role in suppressing Fédon's rebellion, an uprising against British rule on the island of Grenada.{{Cite news|first=Mary|last=McCool|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-52978121|title=How Scotland's city streets tell a story of slavery|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=9 June 2020|access-date=3 May 2022}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, {{Page needed |date=February 2013}}
• Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998.{{ISBN|1-85367-276-9}}

• {{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-hope-3 | the Earl of Hopetoun }}

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