Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hope, Frederick William
HOPE, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1797–1862), entomologist and collector, son of John Thomas Hope and Ellen, only child of Sir Thomas Edwardes, bart., was born in London on 3 Jan. 1797. He graduated B.A. at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1820, M.A. in 1823, and took holy orders, becoming for a time curate of Frodesley in Shropshire. He devoted himself to the study of entomology, and, having large means, accumulated a great collection of insects, which he gave to the university of Oxford in 1849. At the same time he founded a professorship of zoology, and nominated Mr. J. O. Westwood to that office, as well as to the curatorship of his collection. For many years he added to the Oxford collections both entomological and general zoological specimens. He also collected engraved portraits of naturalists, and extended his collection of prints till he had amassed 140,000 portraits, 70,000 topographical engravings, and more than 20,000 engravings in natural history. These were all given to Oxford University. He was early elected a fellow of the Royal and Linnean Societies, and took an active part in founding the Zoological and Entomological Societies. He was president of the Entomological Society in 1835 and in 1846. His correspondence with naturalists was extensive, and he rendered valuable assistance to the works of Gravenhorst, Schonherr, Gory, Kirby, Yarrell, and others. Of somewhat weak constitution, he was compelled to reside during a great part of each year from 1849 onwards on the Mediterranean, where he paid much attention to fishes and crustacea. In 1855 the university of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L. He died in London 15 April 1862, aged 65. His widow, in pursuance of his intentions, gave an additional endowment to the professorship which he had founded, and a stipend for a keeper of his collection of engraved portraits. In addition to about sixty separate papers on entomological subjects, chiefly in the Entomological Society's ‘Transactions,’ Hope wrote the ‘Coleopterist's Manual,’ in 3 pts., London, 1837–40.
[Gent. Mag. 1862, i. 785–8; obituary notice (by T. J. Pettigrew) prefixed to Thesaurus Entomologicus Oxon., illustrating Hope's collection, by J. O. Westwood, Oxf. 1874.]