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HOPE WEIR, Hon. Charles (1710-91), of Craigiehall, Linlithgow, and Blackwood, Lanark.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 8 May 1710, 2nd surv. s. of Charles Hope, M.P. [S], 1st Earl of Hopetoun [S], by Lady Henrietta Johnstone, da. of William, 1st Mq. of Annandale [S]. educ. Glasgow Univ. 1724; Leyden 1728; Grand Tour. m. (1) 26 July 1733, Catherine (d. 5 Dec. 1743), da. and h. of Sir William Weir, 2nd Bt., of Blackwood, Lanarks, 6s. 2da.; (2) 20 Mar. 1746, Anne Vane (div. May 1757), da. of Hon. Henry Vane, 2s.; (3) 2 Apr. 1766, Helen, da. of George Dunbar of Leuchold, Linlithgow, 1s. 3da. suc. uncle 2nd Mq. of Annandale to Craigiehall estate 1730; acquired Blackwood estate on marriage and assumed add. name of Weir.
Offices Held
Gov. of Blackness castle 1744-d.; muster-master gen. [S] 1744-59; trustee for fisheries and manufactures 1755-84; commr. for forfeited estates 1755; chamberlain of Ettrick forest 1768-d.
Biography
Just before the 1734 election Charles Hope Weir, the son of a representative peer who controlled Linlithgowshire, was granted a pension of £400 p.a., which he relinquished shortly before his return in 1743.1 Though he then defeated a placeman seeking re-election, he supported the Government, voting for the Hanoverians in 1744 and 1746, when he was classed as an Old Whig. On the formation of the Broad-bottom Administration in December 1744 he received two lucrative appointments. After his elopement with Anne Vane in 1746, he asked Newcastle, as a family friend, to intercede with her father, Henry Vane.2 Re-elected without opposition in 1747, he was consulted by Pelham on a Lanarkshire by-election in 1750.3 Unlike most of his compatriots, he voted with the ministry on the case of General Philip Anstruther.4 In 1753 he applied to Newcastle to be appointed to the board of manufacturers,5 which he was two years later. Again returned unopposed in 1754, he died 30 Dec. 1791.
