John Hope was born in Edinburgh on 10 May 1725, the son of the surgeon Robert Hope. He held a private practice and was physician to the Royal Infirmary. In 1761 he became Professor of Botany and Materia Medica, King's Botanist for Scotland, and Superintendent of the royal garden. With Thomas Martyn he was among the first in Britain to teach the Linnaean system. In 1768 he was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine and Botany and established a new botanic garden north of Leith Walk, a predecessor of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
