Born at 37 Upper Seymour Street, London, the second son of John Thomas Hope of Netley Hall, Shrewsbury, and Ellen Hester Mary, only child and heiress of Sir Thomas Edwardes, Bart. He was privately educated by Rev. Delafosse of Richmond, and from 1817 at Christ Church, Oxford where he acquired BA in December 1820 and MA in April 1823. He was then presented to the Curacy of the family living of Frodesley in Shropshire, but was quickly obliged to retire as a result of ill health. Hope married, on 6 June 1835, Ellen Meredith, the younger daughter and co-heiress of George Meredith of Nottingham Place, Marylebone, and Berrington Court, Worcestershire, who had earlier rejected a proposal of marriage from Benjamin Disraeli. She is recorded to have been a great supporter of her husband's interests. These included collecting engraved portraits, of which he eventually amassed some 140,000; topographical engravings, 70,000; and natural history engravings 20,000. These, together with his extensive insect collections, were given to the University of Oxford in 1849 (and subsequently added to). At the same time Hope founded a professorship of zoology, to which he nominated John O. Westwood, whom he also appointed to the curatorship of his collections. Smith (1986), who gives a detailed account of Hope and the history of the Hope Department, explains that his involvement with entomology came about as a result of his friendship with Dr John Kidd, whose zoology lectures made a great impression on him. Hope's copy of Marsham (1802) in the Department, one of numerous printed volumes, letters and manuscripts belonging to Hope which refer to Coleoptera and are housed there (see Smith (1986), pp. 78-80 for detailed list) is interleaved and contains details of beetles captured at Oxford whilst he was still an undergraduate. James Hogan tells me that many of these notes are of ‘great interest, detailing captures of species now very rare or extinct in Britain. An extract of the notes for Platycerus caraboiodes reads: This species long doubted as a native of this country was taken in July at Oxford not far from Witham cut out of a dry and almost sapless oak, another was taken flying not far from the city in 1820’ Hope's collection of insects as given to Oxford was detailed in a manuscript schedule which is printed in full by Smith (pp.126-128). It included 31 cabinets of varying sizes containing 964 drawers, an unspecified number of store boxes, 1800 books, 249 solanders and 18 portfolios. Much of this material relates to Coleoptera. No proper record exists for donations between 1850 and 1857 but after that date there is a list kept by Westwood. Interestingly Coleoptera are mentioned in 1857 and 1859 but after then Hope's gifts consisted mainly of other material. James Hogan tells me that Hope was also active in purchasing specimens including material from the collections of E.Donovan, J.C.Stevens, T.Marsham and T.V.Wollaston. All of Hope’s known type specimens have been catalogued and removed to the type collection. Hope's collections contained a considerable amount of material from foreign and British collectors who are listed by Smith individually in many cases. After his death Hope's widow fulfilled his wishes by providing further endowments of £10,000 and £1,666.13.4 part of which was to pay the salary of the Keeper of Engravings. She also gave several portraits of her husband including the oil painting by Lowes Dickinson which hangs in the room containing the collections. Other portraits hang in the Ashmolean Museum. Hope's publications included some sixty papers on entomology of which the majority were on Coleoptera, many describing new genera and species from abroad. His Coleopterists Manual, containing the Lamellicorn beetles of Linnaeus and Fabricius, 3 vols. 1837-40, is the publication for which he is perhaps best known. FRS.FLS. Took an active part in founding the Zoological Society. Founder Member of the Entomological Society of which he was subsequently Treasurer, President and Vice-President at different times. He was also the recipient of many foreign honours. Gilbert (1977) gives a list of six obituaries and other notices the chief of which are Gentleman's Magazine, 1862, 785-788 and T.J.Pettigrew's obituary prefixed to J.O.Westwood, Thesaurus Entomologicus Oxoniensis, 1874. (MD 5/03)
Dates
3 January 1797 - 15 April 1862