Hope, Thomas, Sir (1573 -1646)
Sir Thomas Hope was the second son of Harry Hope, Merchant Burgess of Dieppe [1586], and afterwards Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh [1588], having had to flee the Continent for his religion, and his wife Jacqueline de Tott, a French Protestant. Sir Thomas was bred to the law in Scotland, became an advocate at the Scottish bar in 1605, and made his reputation for courageous defence in cases of treason. He had a successful practice in the reign of James I, but was called to political life when Charles came to the throne, and in 1626 appointed him joint Lord Advocate for Scotland along with Sir William Oliphant, after whose death two years later he acted alone. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Binning, of Wallyford, by whom he had fourteen children, three of whom grew up to be Lords of Session. On 19 February 1628 he was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1643 was appointed Commissioner to the General Assembly, a dignity which no commoner has since held. He was the ancestor of the baronets of Craighall in Fife, of the family of bankers in Amsterdam, and of the Hopes, Earls of Hopetoun, Marquesses of Linlithgow, descendants of his sixth son, James, who married Anne, daughter and heir of the Foulis of Leadhills. The motto on the stamp is an anagram of THOMAS HOPEVS, as is AT HOSPES HUMO [Psalm 119 verse 19] which was carved on the lintel of the West door of his house in Edinburgh. Sir Thomas himself wrote a Latin translation of the Psalms and the Song of Solomon which was published in 1626. The lintel is preserved in Edinburgh City Library, which stands on the site of his house.