James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun

Who was James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun?

James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun, known as Viscount Aithrie from 1742 to 1781, was a Scottish Representative Peer.

Hopetoun was the son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, and his first wife Anne, daughter of James Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Findlater, and succeeded in the earldom on his father's death in 1781. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Linlithgowshire from 1794 to 1816 and a sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1784 to 1790 and from 1794 to 1796. In 1809 he was created Baron Hopetoun, of Hopetoun in the County of Linlithgow, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, with remainder to the heirs male of his father. In 1792 Hopetoun succeeded de jure as fifth Earl of Annandale and Hartfell on the death of his great-uncle, although he never successfully claimed the title. He also inherited the Johnstone family estates and assumed this surname in addition to that of Hope.

Lord Hopetoun married Lady Elizabeth, daughter of George Carnegie, 6th Earl of Northesk, in 1766. They had five daughters. She died in 1793. Lord Hopetoun survived her by over twenty years and died in May 1816, aged 74. He was succeeded in the earldom of Hopetoun by his half-brother, John.