Politician and noble. In 1702, soon after Hope came of age, he was elected to Parliament as Member for Linlithgow. The following year, he was created 1st Earl of Hopetoun, Viscount Airthrey and Lord Hope by Queen Anne (1665 - 1714). All of this was partially in recognition of his father's bravery and mainly in anticipation of his support of an Act of Union. His father, John Hope, had died in 1682 saving Anne's father, King James II and VII (1633 - 1701) from a shipwreck off the Norfolk coast.
His father having purchased the Hopetoun estates in 1678, Hope, together with his mother Margaret, commissioned Sir William Bruce (1630 - 1710) to build Hopetoun House in 1699.
