Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hope, James (1741-1816)
HOPE, JAMES, afterwards James Hope Johnstone, third Earl of Hopetoun (1741–1816), born in 1741, was second son and fourth child of John, second earl, by his first wife, Anne Ogilvy (d. 1759), second daughter of James, fifth earl of Findlater and Seafield. He became ensign in the 3rd regiment of foot-guards 9 May 1758, served with his regiment at Minden, and quitted the army in 1764 in order to travel with his elder brother, Lord Hope, who was in declining health. In 1781 he succeeded to the earldom on the death of his father, in 1784 was chosen a representative peer of Scotland, and in 1790 took part in a disputed election for representative peers, he claiming unsuccessfully that he and the Earl of Selkirk had been lawfully chosen (see The Petition of Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, and James, Earl of Hopetoun). In 1794 he was again elected. Meanwhile, in 1792, he had succeeded, on the death of his grand-uncle (of the half-blood), the lunatic George Johnstone, third marquis of Annandale, to the earldoms of Annandale and Hartfell, in addition to very large estates in Scotland. But he never assumed the titles, merely adding Johnstone to his family name. In 1793 he raised and commanded the corps of Hopetoun fencibles, and in recognition of this service he was, on 3 Feb. 1809, created Baron Hopetoun in the peerage of the United Kingdom. For many years he was lord-lieutenant of Linlithgowshire and hereditary keeper of the castle of Lochmaben. Hope died at Hopetoun House, Linlithgowshire, on 29 May 1816, and, in default of male issue of his own, was succeeded in the barony as well as the earldom by his half-brother, Sir John Hope of Rankeillour [q. v.], then Lord Niddry, the barony having been limited to the heirs male of the second Earl of Hopetoun. Hope married, 25 Aug. 1766, Elizabeth Carnegie (d. 1793), daughter of George, sixth earl of Northesk, by whom he had six daughters, of whom Anne Johnstone (d. 1818) married in 1792 Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope [q. v.]; Georgiana (d. 1797), married in 1793 the Hon. Andrew Cochrane; and Jemima, married in 1803 Rear-admiral Sir George Johnstone Hope.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. Wood, i. 750; Burke's Peerage; Courthope's Historic Peerage; Playfair's Brit. Fam. Antiq. iii. 461; Gent. Mag. 1816, i. 569; Book of Dignities; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 494.]