John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun

The Earl of Hopetoun
John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun
Born	17 August 1765 Abercorn, West Lothian
Died	27 August 1823 Paris, France
Buried at	Abercorn, West Lothian
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Commands held	Ireland
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars Peninsular War Battle of Corunna Walcheren Campaign Battle of Nivelle Battle of the Nive
Awards	Knight of the Order of the Bath Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers

General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun PC KB (17 August 1765 – 27 August 1823), known as the Honourable John Hope from 1781 to 1814 and as the Lord Niddry from 1814 to 1816, was a Scottish politician and British Army officer.

Military career

Hopetoun was the only son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, by his second wife Jane Oliphant.^[1] His mother died when he was one-year-old.^[1] He was commissioned into the 10th Light Dragoons in 1784.^[1] He sat as Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire from 1790 to 1800.^[1]

He took part in the capture of the French West Indies and Spanish West Indies in 1796 and 1797.^[1] 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.^[1] In 1801 he was sent to Cairo and then to Alexandria to take the surrender of the French garrisons there.^[1]

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.^[1] Later that year he commanded the reserve army during the Walcheren Campaign.^[1] He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and was admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1812.^[1] He then commanded the First Division under The Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Nivelle and at the Battle of the Nive in 1813.^[1]

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, with remainder to the male issue of his father. In 1816 he succeeded his elder half-brother as fourth Earl of Hopetoun.

Statue near St Andrew Square in Edinburgh

Family

Lord Hopetoun married firstly Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Hope-Weir, in 1798. After her death he married secondly Louisa Dorothea Wedderburn. He died in August 1823, aged 58, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son from his second marriage, John. Lady Hopetoun died in 1836.

Monuments

Following Lord Hopetoun's death, the Hopetoun Monument was erected on Byres Hill, East Lothian, in 1824.^[2] This was followed in 1826 by a similar monument on Mount Hill in Fife.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

A boarding house at Wellington College, Berkshire, has been named after him. It has recently been turned into a girls house.

Notes

References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Lundy, Darryl. "FAQ". The Peerage. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Hopetoun