Following his dismissal from Parliament, Hope embarked on a career as a poet and essayist and raised three sons following the suicide of his wife in 1767.
He was educated at Enfield Grammar School, Middlesex until he was 13, when he was sent to Amsterdam to learn the merchant trade from a Dutch branch of the family, Thomas Hope (1704-1779).
In 1762 he married Mary Breton, but five years later she committed suicide, leaving him with three young boys.
Within two years however Hope had been replaced by James Dundas following his support of John Wilkes against his sponsor's wishes.
Having been removed from Parliament, Hope returned to merchant trade, becoming a noted writer in periodicals of the time some of which was later published in 1780 under the title of "Thoughts in Prose and Verse Started in his Walks".