Series 2 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society

INTRODUCTION
The Diarist
The writer of this Diary was Sir James Hope of Hopetoun,
sixth son of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, the eminent
Lord Advocate and Jurist, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter
of John Bennet of Wally ford. He was one of a family
of fourteen children, and was born 4th and baptized
12th July 1614. Like so many cadets of Scottish families
at this period, he was, as a young man, sent abroad to
complete his education. We get a detailed and interesting
account of his starting, from the pen of his father Sir
Thomas,1 along with his next elder brother, Alexander:
James was bound for the university of Orleans, where an
ancestor of his future wife, James Foulis, afterwards a
Judge of the Court of Session, had been ‘ procurator of
the venerable Scottish nation ’ so long before as 1512,2
while his brother Alexander already held a position at
the English Court.3 They were well equipped with funds
1 He also kept a diary which was published, though unfortunately without
any assistance to the reader in the way of editing, by the Bannatyne Club in
1843.
2 ‘The Scottish Nation in the University of Orleans,’ Scottish History
Society Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 97.
3 An application for some post for Alexander had been made on or before
1627, but owing to his youth (he was only sixteen) had not been granted. On
29th September 1627, Sir Thomas writes to the Earl of Annandale, who had
had the direction of Scottish affairs, and who had evidently promised to do
what he could for the boy, ‘ Ye hope at sum uther tyme to gif me contentment,
and hope I and my sone, being Hopes, will rest upon that hope, and still hope
that his sacred Majestic will not disappoint our hope.’—‘ Report, on Laing MSS.'
Hist, MSS. Com., vol. i. p. 178.