BLACKBRIDGE CEMETERY

HOPE FAMILY

John Walter Hope was born 2 July 1858 in Johnstone by Lockerbie in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, the son of Peter Hope and Annie Weir. He was one of four children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1881 census the family was living at Newington in Midlothian.

 

In 1890 he was called from Scotland to serve as minister at Knox church. In April of that year he was married in Christchurch.

 

Evening Post, 25 April 1890,

Hope - Parkinson   On 23rd April, 1890, at St Andrew's Church, Christchurch, by the Rev. Gordon Webster. M.A assisted by the Rev W. R. Campbell, Amuri, the Rev John Walter Hope, M.A., The Hutt. Wellington, elder son of the late Rev. Peter Hope, Edinburgh, to May Rose, second daughter of the late Thomas Hodgson Parkinson, Esq., Park Hill. Gebbie's Valley. Canterbury.

 

There was one son of the marriage, Leslie Hope, who was born on 25 March 1891.

 

 Sadly John Hope was to die only two years into his ministry at Knox.

 

Evening Post, 1 July 1892, Hope. - On the 29th inst., at the Manse, Lower Hutt, the Rev. John Walter Hope, M.A., son of the late Rev. Peter Hope, M.A., B.D., Edinburgh; aged 33 years.

 

The Presbytery of Wellington has adopted the two following minutes in reference to the death of late members of the Presbyterian Church in connection with the death of the Rev. J. W. Hope. “The Presbytery desire to put on record their sense of the great loss they have sustained in the death of the Rev. J. W. Hope, M.A., of the Hutt. Ordained and inducted into the charge of the Hutt on 29th April, 1890, and called to his rest on 29th June, 1892, his ministry was indeed brief, yet earnest and faithful and, although carried on amid much bodily sickness, it was not without tokens of success. All who knew him recognised in Mr. Hope a man of superior ability, of fine culture, of gentlemanly bearing, of upright Christian character: a man, too, of faith and courage, and of a high sense of duty, standing at his post and doing his duty up to the very last."            (Evening Post, 15 July 1892)

 

There is a stone set into the western side of the church which reads:

Erected by the congregation and friends of the Rev. John Walter Hope, M.A. Late minister of Knox Church, ordained 28th April 1890. Died 28th June 1892. Thy day was short, thy work is done, Now rest thee well, thy course is done. Yea rest in God – that blest employ, Whose work is rest and endless joy.

 

In the Evening Post of  12 May 1932 there is an article about the 80th anniversary of Knox church. An extract reads:

“A son of Mr. Hope served in the war, after which he was ordained and is now the Rev. Leslie W. Hope, D.D., the popular minister of Renfield Church, Glasgow.”