A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hope, Henry
HOPE, C.B. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 17; h-p., 32.)
Henry Hope, born in 1787, is eldest son of the late Commissioner Chas. Hope, R.N. (son of Hon. Chas. Hope Vere, by Ann Vane, eldest daughter of Henry, first Earl of Darlington, and grandson of the first Earl of Hopetoun), by Susan Anne, daughter of Admiral Herbert Sawyer. He is brother of Fred. Hope, Esq., a Major in the Army, and of the present Commander Geo. Hope, R.N.; brother-in-law of Rear-Admiral C. S. J. Hawtayne; nephew of Henry Hope, Esq., who was Lieut.-Governor of Canada, and died in 1789; and cousin of the late Rear-Admiral Sir Geo. Hope, K.C.B,, and the late Vice-Admiral the Right Hon. Sir Wm. Johnstone Hope, G.C.B.
This officer entered the Navy, 2 April, 1798, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Princess Augusta yacht, employed on the river Thames. Being discharged, as Midshipman, in May, 1800, into the Kent 74, commanded by his relative Capt. Wm. Johnstone Hope, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where we find him, in the following Dec, escorting Sir Ralph Abercromby from Gibraltar to Egypt. After serving at the blockade of Alexandria, he removed to the Swiftsure 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, and on 24 June, 1801, was on board that ship in a desperate engagement of more than an hour’s duration, which reduced her to a wreck, and rendered her a prize to a French squadron of four sail of the line under Rear-Admiral Gaunteaume. In the ensuing Sept., on his restoration to liberty, Mr. Hope joined the Leda frigate, Capts. Geo. Hope, Thos. Masterman Hardy, and Robt. Honyman, with whom he served on the Mediterranean and Home stations until June, 1803; between which period and his attainment of Lieutenant’s rank, 3 May, 1804, he was further employed with Capts. George and Wm. J. Hope, in the North Sea, on board the Defence and Atlas 74’s. After he had next cruized with Capt. Geo. Burlton in the Adamant 50, and had aided, in the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly, at the reduction of the Cape, Lieut. Hope was promoted, 22 Jan. 1806, to the command of the Espoir sloop; in which vessel he served in the Channel and Mediterranean, and off the coast of Portugal, until made Post, 24 May, 1808, into the Glatton 50. His subsequent appointments were – 17 Nov. 1808, 4 May, 1809, and 17 May, 1810, to the Leonidas, Topaze, and Satellite [1] frigates, all on the Mediterranean station, where he assisted Capt. Hallowell, in Oct. 1809, in making the preparations which led to the capture and destruction of a convoy in the Bay of Rosas, as detailed in our memoir of Sir Augustus Clifford – and, 18 May, 1813, to the Endymion, of 48 guns and 319 men. In that frigate Capt. Hope won perpetual fame by his ardour in pursuing, his intrepidity in bringing to close action, and his undaunted spirit in maintaining for two hours and a half a conflict with the American ship President, of 56 guns and 465 men, who at length hauled down her colours, after a loss to herself of 35 killed and 70 wounded, and to the British of 11 killed and 14 wounded.[2] Previously to this brilliant affair, which took place 15 Jan. 1815, Capt. Hope had taken the Perry letter-of-marque, had also served at the blockade of New London, and had contributed, during an expedition up the Penobscot, to the capture of the town of Castine, 1 Sept. 1814. On reaching Bermuda, after the capture of the President, the magistrates, merchants, and inhabitants, deputed a committee to wait upon him with a complimentary address, and with a request that he would accept a piece of plate as a token of their esteem; they also presented his officers with a goblet, to “be considered as attached to that or any future ship which might bear the gallant name of Endymion.” On arriving with his prize at Spithead, Capt. Hope was presented by the Admiralty with a gold medal in acknowledgment of his gallant conduct; and on 4 June, 1815, be was nominated a C.B. He was put out of commission in the following Sept., and has since been on half-pay. His advancement to Flag-rank took place 9 Nov. 1846.
During the fifteen years immediately previous to his last promotion Rear-Admiral Hope filled the appointment of extra and full Aide-de-Camp to William IV. and to Her present Majesty. He married, 21 July, 1828, Jane Sophia, youngest daughter of Admiral Sir Herbert Sawyer, K.C.B., which lady died in 1829.