Isobel Hoppar
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Isobel Hoppar or Hopper (born c.1490, died after 1538) was a Scottish landowner and governess of Margaret Douglas.[1] She was a powerful political figure in Scotland during the youth of King James V, and her wealth and influence attracted misogynous comment from her faction's enemies.
Isobel Hoppar was the daughter of an Edinburgh merchant Richard Hoppar. Katrine Hoppar who married Andrew Moubray of Moubray House in Edinburgh was probably her niece. Her family connections are shown in a 1510 property transaction when Katrine Hoppar's father William Hoppar, Isobel's husband John Murray of Barony, and the royal secretary Adam Otterburn husband of Eufamia Moubray, all acted as witnesses together.[2]
Richard Hoppar exported goods to Andrew Halyburton at Middelburg in Zeeland. Andrew Halyburton's surviving ledger mentions Isobel Hoppar's brother, William Hoppar, as Richard Hoppar's's agent and Halyburton's 'gossop' (colleague and relative) in Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom. In September 1498 Richard Hoppar sent wool in a ship belonging to Andrew Barton. Barton returned with silverware destined for Thomas Tod the Provost of Edinburgh, the Archdean of Aberdeen, and 'our Warden'. The case for the silver was paid for by William Hoppar.[3]
'Dik Hoppar', her father, imported velvet and sold fur to James IV of Scotland.[4] In January 1505, Richard handed a newly built house on the north side of the Royal Mile to his other son, Master Henry Hoppar. Richard Hoppar also had a house on the west side of St Mary's Wynd, which was occupied by William Hoppar in 1507, and a part was inherited by his daughter Katrine in 1530.[5]
Richard Hoppar's own dwelling was a 'great mansion'.[6] This house was on the north side of the Royal Mile, behind the 'foreland' on the street front, descending towards the Nor' Loch or Trinity College Kirk passage, was described in 1508 as having hall, chamber and kitchen with lofts and a straight stair running north (called a gallery), over three cellars. The plan was similar to the surviving Moubray House.[7] The tenement building plot had belonged to Patrick Frog.[8]
Isobel's nephew, Katrine's brother, Adam Hopper (d. 1529), was master of the Edinburgh Merchants Guild, established by "seal of cause" in 1518 when it was given the Holy Blood Aisle in St Giles Kirk. A banner of the Holy Blood Confraternity made at this time, the "Fetternear banner" is kept at the National Museum of Scotland.[9] Adam was married to Katherine Bellenden the seamstress of James V of Scotland.[10]
Isobel Hoppar married, before January 1504, Master John Murray of Barony or Blackbarony near Peebles, a clerk of the exchequer, who was killed at Flodden in 1513.[11] In early modern Scotland married women did not usually adopt their husband's surnames.[12][13]