(1710 - 91), 2nd surv. s. of 1st E. of Hopetoun [S]; educ. Glasgow U. 1724, Leiden U. 1728; suc. uncle 1730 to Craigiehall estate; took add. name of Weir 1733; m. 1 1733 Catherine Weir (d. 1743), 2 1746 Ldy. Anne Vane, dau. of 1st E. of Darlington (div. 1757), 3 1766 Helen Dunbar; MP 1743 - 68.
1755 [dep. England Oct. 1754] Genoa (9 Jan. 1755), Pisa (Jan.), Leghorn, Florence (30 Jan. - 20 Feb.), Siena, Rome (24 Feb.), Naples (Apr.), Rome (Apr. - 3 Sep.), Viterbo, Florence (Oct.), Venice, Turin (Dec. 1755) [England 31 May 1756]
Charles Hope-Weir went to Italy to visit his son William and, at the suggestion of Lord Hopetoun (his older brother), he travelled with Robert Adam. He met William in Pisa in January 1755 and they visited Leghorn together. His relationship with Adam had soured by the time they reached Rome: 'he showed that he did not want that I should go anywhere alongst with him', said Adam, who also accused him of 'many thousand sneaking, scrubbish dirty actions'. Hope-Weir chose Colin Morison as his new companion when he left Rome for Naples, but when he saw Adam there they were cordial, and when they finally separated in Rome Adam confessed that he 'was sorry to part with him'.1
In Rome Hope-Weir sat to Mengs (the portrait remains untraced) and bought from him The Seasons 'painted in Crayons for my Lord Hopetoun, extremely fine of the kind'.2 He also acquired several antique marbles,3 and a wax medallion portrait of himself dated Roma 1755 was set in a pietra dura cabinet which may have been made in Edinburgh soon after his return from Italy (London art market 1994).4 Hope-Weir left Rome on 3 September, intending to stay in Italy 'for some months'. He was going to take the waters at Viterbo; he was in Florence in October, and was to meet his son in Venice. In December he was at Turin with a letter of introduction from Cardinal Albani to the Sardinian Court.5 He was in Frankfurt the following May, and arrived in England on 31 May 1756.6
1. See Fleming, Adam, 106, 148, 150, 157, 178 - 9, 356. 2. Seafield MSS, GD 248/954/5 (C. Morison, 18 Sep. 1755). 3. Fleming, Adam, 356 (citing J.P. Wood, Cramond, 67 - 8, 71,
151). 4. S. Pyke, CL, 11 Jan. 1996, 44 - 5. 5. Dated 30 Aug. 1755; AST cd, mazz.236, f.131. 6. See Fleming, Adam, 356.