UCL

Henry Hope

Profile & Legacies Summary

1735 - 1811

Biography

Banker of Amsterdam and then London, a major figure in European finance, closely connected with Barings, with whom he co-financed the Louisiana Purchase and with whom his firm Hope & Co. merged after Hope's death. In the British colonies he has been traced as mortgagee of William Macintosh (q.v.) in Grenada in 1770. The Hopes are also known in 1769 to have lent 100,000 guilders to Lever and De Bruine, fund managers and mortgagees of estates in Surinam.


Sources

Bram Hoonout, 'Subprime plantation mortgages in Suriname, Essequibo and Demerara' [unpublished MA thesis, University of Leiden, 2012] p. 31, https://www.academia.edu/15714277/Subprime_plantation_mortgages_in_Suriname_Essequibo_and_Demerara_1750_1800_On_manias_Ponzi_processes_and_illegal_trade_in_the_Dutch_negotiatie_system_MA_thesis_ [accessed 06/08/2020].

Further Information

Absentee?
'Foreign'

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1770 [EA] - → Mortgage Holder
Port Royal (or Lot 61, St Andrew) [ Grenada | St Andrew ]

In 1770, William Macintosh mortgaged his estates and enslaved people on Grenada to Henry Hope of Amsterdam to raise £20,000 or 220,000 guilders. Samuel Hoare, John Harman, Jeremiah Harman and Alexander Fordyce were later added, possibly as trustees, while Wm. Pulteney, John Macintosh and Samuel Hannay stood as sureties or guarantors on the debt to Henry Hope. Macintosh then in 1774 sold Charles Grant the Union estate and about 100 acres of Port Royal and Mendon, together with 54 enslaved people, and in 1775 he sold to Thomas Baker the Port Royal estate with 94 'negroes' for £24,000, reduced to £22,000 to take account of the agreed value of an annuity of £275 p.a to Nicholas Ray of London secured on the estate (and enslaved people). Baker retained £10,000 of the purchase price as an indemnity for any claim from Henry Hope under the mortgage.

Legacies Summary

Commercial (2)

Baring Brothers
Banker  
 
Details
notes →
Hope & Co. merged with Baring Brothers after the death of Henry Hope in 1811....
Senior partner
Hope & Co.
Banker  
 
Details

Relationships (1)

Henry Hope
Business associates
Alexander Baring
Details