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The Hope family motto

"At spes infracta" or
"At spes non fracta"


"Yet my hope is unbroken"

My personal motto:

dum spiro spero

"while I breathe, I hope"
 

I don't worry about stuff like that...

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Non solliciti de materia sicut quod ...

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CLAN HOPE OF CRAIGHALL HISTORY

 

We have an hereditary Chief of Clan, a Marquess, an Earl, a Baron, several knights and several Lord and Lady Hopes still listed in the Peerage today. 

The name is considered to be of native Scots origin coming from the family of Hop or Hoip. John de Hop of Peebleshire and Adam de Hoip both appear on the Ragman Roll of Scottish nobles submitting to Edward I of England in 1296. The Middle English "hop" means a small valley and as a component part is a common place name. Another derivation may be from the family of de H'oublons of Picardy. The French oublon means "hop" and when translated into English it became Hope. 

The immediate ancestor of the principal line, John de Hope, is said to have come to Scotland from France in 1537 as part of the retinue of Magdalen, first wife of James V. He married and settled in Edinburgh where he prospered and had a son, Edward who became a commissioner for Edinburgh to the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1560. His grandson, Sir Thomas Hope, was appointed Lord Advocate by Charles I. He acquired the estate of Craighall in the parish of Ceres in Fife, which thereafter was the principal family designation. Sir Thomas Hope was a great lawyer of his time and his work, "Hope Prakticks" is still referred to today. He was made a Baronet of Nova in 1628 and he was one of the drafters of the National Convenant in 1638. He died in 1646 not before seeing two of his sons raised to the Supreme Court Bench. His oldest son succeeded to the Baronetcy and also took the judicial tile of "Lord Craighall". He is credited with advising the exiled Charles II to "tret with Cromwell for the one half of his cloak before he lost the whole". 

The Sixth Baronet sold the estate of Craighall in 1729 to his kinsman, the Earl of Hopetoun. The eight Baronet of Craighall, was a noted agricultural improver, and the Edinburgh parklands known as The Meadows, bordered on the street known as Hope Park, were laid out by him. The sixteenth Baronet was Member of Parliament for six years and served with distinction in the Boer War and the First World War. 

The Hopetoun branch of the family came from Sir James Hope, younger son of the great Lord Advocate, who acquired lands in West Lothian which became Hopetoun of Craighall. His son, John Hope, of Hopetoun drowned in the wreck of the frigate Gloucester, and it is believed died saving the Duke of York, who later became James VII. This act may have contributed to the meteoric rise of his son, Charles who as soon as he became of age was elected to Parliament for Linlithgow and was quickly appointed to the Privy Council. On April 5th, 1703, he was raised to the peerage as Earle of Hopetoun, Viscount Aithrie, and Lord Hope. 

The great mansion "Hopetoun House" which is located on the Firth of Fourth was planned during the first Earl's infancy and is today considered one of William Adam's, the architect's masterpieces. During the eighteenth century the Earl of Hopetoun continued to amass vast estates until he came to own most of West Lothian and large parts of East Lothian, Lanarkshire and vast highland holdings around the area of Loch Hope near Tongue. General Sir John Hope the forth Earl, was a distinguished soldier who was with Sir John Moore in the Peninsular War. He was prominent in the revitalization of the Royal Company of Archers (the bodyguard of the monarch in Scotland) of which he became Captain General. He staged a magnificent reception for George IV at Hopetoun House in 1822 during the kings famous visit to Scotland. 

John Adrian Hope, The seventh Earl was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Victoria from 1898 to 1900. He was later appointed Governor General of the newly created Australian Commonwealth in 1900. He was created Marquess of Linlithgow in October, 1902. The second Marquess was Viceroy to India from 1936 to 1943. As an aside, while Viceroy of India, he declared war on Japan on behalf of India without consulting the crown. 

The family still lives at Hopetoun today. The Baronets of Craighall are also still in existence today and are the claimants for the Chiefship of the name. Our Clan Chief is Sir John Carl Alexander Hope of Craighall, Chief of Hope, Hope of Hope, 18th BT and Chief of the Name and Arms of Hope. 

Having an Hereditary Chief, Earls, Marques's, Lords, Ladies and an occasional knight here and there in the family does add a bit of flavor to the current family history . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Origins of the Hope Surname

 

The "Hope" surname originated as a place name associated with Scotland, England, and Norway. In many parts of central and western Europe, hereditary surnames began to become fixed during, roughly, the 1100s, and have developed and changed slowly over the years. As society became more complex, such matters as land ownership and collection of taxes became more prominent, it became imperative to develop a more complex system to differentiate among individuals having the same given name.  

The Hope surname is most often a habitation, place or location name, 'the dweller at the hope' meaning 'resident between two hills'. In some of the older Celtic languages, a hope, (originally hop or hob), referred to a valley, hollow or other piece of land between, or enclosed by, hills or mountains, it has also been found attached to mountains, lakes and rivers. In some Scandinavian languages, it referred to a fjord, lake or other land locked body of water.

 

The French surname, l'Esperance (from the three virtues), literally translated as Hope, became Hope in some cultures. Others such as Hoip, Hop, Hoep, Hoop, Hoppe, Haupt, etc. were also anglicized into Hope. The surname was reportedly taken to Ireland by settlers and has been traditionally associated with Westmeath since the 13th century and Northern Ireland since the 17th century, although now widely scattered. In any case, the Hope surname is known to be present in Scotland as early as the thirteenth century. The Scottish Gaelic spelling is "Hob"; middle English was Hop(e) and old Norse was Hop.

Hope, Johan (del counte de Pebbles) Signed the Ragman Rolls in 1296. Many others signing the Ragman Rolls were from shires in the modern Scottish Borders where modern Peebleshire is located. Hopes were already extant in England around the same time. Roger le Hope is mentioned in early records in 1273 as residing in County Hereford. The Poll Tax of 1379 listed Alicia de Hope in Yorkshire. In the year of 1590, Fulk Hope married Elizabeth Hopkyn in London.

There were two distinct groups of Hopes in early Scotland. One group, possibly that of which Johan Hope above was an early member, is associated with the borders region. This group of Hopes is identifiable and is currently extant in Scotland as well as the United States, Australia and Canada. 

There are two purported origins of the Edinburgh Hopes. John de Hope who came from France as a part of the retinue of Mary (Magdelena?) of Guise (French) to marry James V, king of Scotland is credited by some as the progenitor of the Hopes. (Mary of Lorraine (coincidence?) or Mary of Guise was the mother of Mary Queen of Scots). However, there was another John Hope, shown in the Edinburgh Burgess Rolls of 1516-1517 with the alias Petit Johnne, Trumpetour who predated John de Hope. One of these John Hopes produced a grandson or great grandson, Sir Thomas Hope, who was a self taught lawyer and became Lord Advocate to Charles I. Sir Thomas gave rise to the two primary lines of the Edinburgh Hope family, his eldest son produced the Hopes of Craighall, with the title, Baronet of Craighall, while the youngest gave rise to the Hopes of Hopetoun, Earl of Hopetoun and Marquess of Linlithgow. The title, Earl of Hopetoun, is said to have been granted to the 1st Earl, Charles in 1703, in recognition of his father's heroism in giving up his place in a lifeboat to the Duke of York during a shipwreck and dying as a result. Both of these Hope lines are extant in the United Kingdom. 

Because of its origin as a place name or translation of foreign names, there are many independent Hope lines. The Hope DNA Surname Project has identified over 20 different lines, mostly in the United States. One line has members in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and France. Clan Hope has a genealogist, who specializes in Hope genealogies. 

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