Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hope, Thomas (1606-1643)

​HOPE, Sir THOMAS (1606–1643), of Kerse, Scottish judge, second son of Sir Thomas Hope (d. 1646) [q. v.], by his wife ​Elizabeth, daughter of John Bennett of Wallingford, Berkshire, was born on 6 Aug. 1606, and was admitted advocate on 17 July 1631. On 16 July 1633 he was knighted by Charles I at Innerwick (Balfour, Annals, iii. 367), and was commissioner in the Scottish parliament for the county of Clackmannan in 1639, 1640, and 1641. In 1639, and again in 1640, he was colonel of the troop raised by the College of Justice to attend General Leslie as his bodyguard; but in the latter year, on the march into England, at the crossing of the Tyne, ‘Sir Thomas and his troop were scarce well entered the ford before they wheeled about and retired with discredit.’ In September 1641 he proposed in parliament, on behalf of the barons, that the estates should appoint officers of state and privy councillors by ballot, but the proposal was lost. He was prominent in opposing Charles's demand for a public inquiry into ‘The Incident,’ and was the author of the compromise effected between the king and the estates with reference to the appointment of Loudoun as chancellor. On 13 Nov. 1641 the estates appointed him an ordinary lord of session and lord justice-general, and he was also a commissioner to treat with the English parliament for the suppression of the Irish rebellion. In the parliament of 1643 he was member for Stirlingshire, but on 23 Aug. of that year he died at Edinburgh, leaving a son, Alexander, the first baronet of Kerse. He wrote ‘The Law Repertorie,’ and left a manuscript commentary on books 18–24 of the ‘Digest,’ now in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.

J. A. H.