Thomas Hope of Kerse

Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse (1606–1643) was a Scottish judge and politician.

Life

The second son of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Bennett of Wallingford, Berkshire, he was born on 6 August 1606. On 17 July 1631 he was admitted advocate.^[1]

On 16 July 1633 Hope was knighted by Charles I at Innerwick, and was commissioner in the Scottish parliament for Clackmannanshire 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 David Leslie as his bodyguard. 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.^[1]

Hope was prominent in opposing Charles I's demand for a public inquiry into "The Incident",’ and was the author of the compromise made between the king and the estates over the appointment of John Campbell, 1st Earl of Loudoun as Lord Chancellor. On 13 November 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.^[1]

In the parliament of 1643 Hope was member for Stirlingshire, but on 23 August he died at Edinburgh, leaving a son, Alexander, the first baronet of Kerse. He wrote a books, The Law Repertorie.^[1]

Notes

1.  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hope, Thomas (1606-1643)". Dictionary of National Biography. 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hope, Thomas (1606-1643)". Dictionary of National Biography. 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.