Hope was born in
Linlithgow,
Scotland in 1817 to
General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, and his wife Louisa Dorothea (née Wedderburn). After finishing his education he joined the
Coldstream Guards, rising to the rank of
Captain. In 1843 he arrived in
New South Wales. Hope moved to
Moreton Bay in 1848 and purchased land at
Ormiston in 1853 where he established his
Ormiston House Estate. In 1854 he purchased land which eventually equaled 364 housing lots at Norman Park. That same year, along with
Robert Ramsay, he took up
Kilcoy Station, eventually becoming its sole owner in 1863. Hope applied Melenesian labour to his twenty acres of sugar cane at Ormiston, and later on his farm near the
Coomera River, which labourers had been recruited through the practice known as
Blackbirding. Hope was also involved in
Sugar mills, opening a mill at Ormiston. ==Politics==