Sir William Henry St John Hope (1854–1919) was an English antiquary.

Life

Rochester Cathedral West Front Hope 1898 40

Hope was born in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, the son of the Reverend William Hope, vicar of Saint Peter's Church. He was educated at

Derby Grammar School Derby Grammar School is a selective independent school in Littleover near the city of Derby, England. Founded in 1995, to recreate the historical Derby School, (which had become mixed-Comprehensive in the 1970s, and then changed name in 1989), i ...

and entered

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

in 1877, graduating B.A. 1881, M.A. 1884, and Litt.D. 1912. On leaving Cambridge, Hope became a master at

Rochester Grammar School Rochester Grammar School (known as Rochester Grammar School for Girls until 2006) often abbreviated to RGS is a grammar school for the education of girls between the ages of 11 and 18. It has academy status. It is now known as just "Rochester Gr ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, a post he continued to hold until his appointment in 1885 as Assistant Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. During this period he carried out the study of Rochester Cathedral Church and monastic buildings, which was published in ''Archaeologia Cantiana'' (1898). Holbeach Littlebury Arms Hope 1913 323

Hope was interested in archaeology and heraldry since boyhood, and his earliest works were on the subject of the

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the paveme ...

es of English churches. His major work was his ''Architectural History of Windsor Castle'', began in 1893 with the approval of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, and completed twenty years later in 1913, an undertaking for which he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

. His other works include '' Stall-plates of Knights of the Garter'', ''Heraldry for Craftsmen and Designers'' and ''A Grammar of English Heraldry''. He was involved in the Society of Antiquaries's report on the restorations and alterations at Bath by Charles Davis in the 1880s. His 1899 ''English Altars'' was the first publication of the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

traditionalist

Alcuin Club The Alcuin Club is an Anglican organization seeking to preserve or restore church ceremony, arrangement, ornament, and practice in an orthodox manner. The organization was founded in 1897 and named after Alcuin of York. It was a reorganization of ...

. He assisted Sir Harold Brakspear in investigating

Ludlow Castle Ludlow Castle is a ruined medieval fortification in the town of the same name in the English county of Shropshire, standing on a promontory overlooking the River Teme. The castle was probably founded by Walter de Lacy after the Norman conque ...

in 1903 and in drawing the plans of

Lewes Priory Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building. History The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and h ...

in 1906. He commissioned the Leeds Camera Club led by Godfrey Bingley to take photographs of Kirkstall Abbey for his book 'Architectural Description of Kirkstall Abbey' published in 1907. Between 1909 and 1915, he participated in the first major excavation of the hillfort at

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest re ...

, along with William Hawley and Duncan Montgomerie. Hope married Myrrha Fullerton in 1885, by whom he had a son before her death in 1903. His second wife was Mary Jeffries, whom he married in 1910. He died at his home in

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the river Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001 ...

near Cambridge, following a series of heart attacks.

Selected publications

* * * * * * A Series of Ninety Full-Sized Coloured Facsimiles with Descriptive Notes and Historical Introductions. * * * * * * * *

References

British archaeologists English antiquarians Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 1854 births 1919 deaths People from Derby People from Great Shelford {{uk-archaeologist-stub