152 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
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Regent’s time, or almost immediately afterwards, a distinct mansion, occupied by Edward
Hope, son of John de Hope,-the ancestor of the celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, and of
the Earls of Hopetom,-who came from France in 1537, in the retinue of Magdalen, Queen
of James V. The earliest title-deeds are wanting, which would fix the date of its acquirement
by Edward Hope, and determine the question as to whether he succeeded the Queen
in its occupancy, or was its first possessor.
Edward Hope was one of the most considerable inhabitants of Edinburgh in the reign
of Queen Nary, and the old mansion, such as we have described it, retained abundant
evidence of the adornments of a wealthy citizen’s dwelling. He appears to have been a
great promoter of the Reformation, and was accordingly chosen, in 1560, as one of the
Commissioners for the Metropolis to the first General Assembly ; and again we find him,
in the following year, incurring Queen Mary’s indignation, as one of the magistrates of
Edinburgh most zealous in enforcing I‘ the statuts of the toun ” against any ‘‘ massemoonger,
or obstinat papist, that corrupted the people, suche as preests, friers, and others
of that sort, that sould be found within the toun.” The Queen caused the provost, Archibald
Douglas of Kilspindie, along with Edward Hope and Adam Fullerton, 1‘ to be charged
to waird in the Castell, and commanded a new electioun to be made of proveist and
baillaes ; ’’ but after a time her wrath was appeased, and civic matters left to take their
wonted course.’ Within this house, in all probability, the Earls of Murray, Morton, and
Glencairn, John Knox, Erskine of Dun, with Lords Boyd, Lindsay, and all the leading men
of the reforming party, have often assembled and matured plans whose final accomplishment
led to results of such vast importance to the nation. The circumstances of that
period may also suggest the probable use of the secret chamber we have described, which
was discovered at the demolition of the building.
The close continues to bear the name of Edward Hope’s through all the title-deeds
down to a very recent period; and in 1622 it appears by these documents to have been
in the possession of Henry Hope, grandson of the above, and younger brother of Sir
Thomas, from whom, also, there is a disposition of a later date, entitled, “ by Sir Thomas
Hope of Craighall, Knight Baronet, his Majesty’s Advocate,” resigning all right or claim
to the property, in favour of his niece, Christian Hope. This appears to have been a
daughter of his brother Henry, who was little less celebrated in his own time than the
eminent lawyer, as the progenitor of the Hopes of Amsterdam, “the merchant-princes” of
their day, surpassing in wealth and commercial enterprise any private mercantile company
ever known. From Henry Hope it passed by marriage and succession through several
hands, until in 1691 it lapsed into the poasession of James, Viscount Stair, in lieu of a
bond for the sum of “three thousand guilders, according to the just value of Dutch
money,” probably some transaction with the great house at Amsterdam. The property
was transferred by him to hia son, Sir David Dalrymple, who in 1702 sold it to
John Wightman of Msuldsie, afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh: and the founder
*
1 Calderwood‘s Hiat., Wod. Soc., vol. ii. p. 44.
a It may not be out of place here to correct an error of Maitland. He remarks (Hist. of Edinburgh, p. 227) that
“the title of Lord, annexed to the Provost, being by prescription, and not by grant, every Provost in the kingdom has
an great a right to that epithet ae the Provost of Edinburgh hath.” It appears, however, from Fountainhall’s Decisions
(Folio, YOL i p. 400), that “ The town, in a competition betwixt them and the College of Justice, got a letter from the
King [Charles 11.1 in 1667, by Sir Andrew Ramsay, then their Provost procurement, determining their Provost should
* Ibid, vol. ii. p. 155. Ante, p. 70.
