Hunter family records : an account of the first American settlers and colonial families of the name of Hunter, and other genealogical and historical data, mostly new and original material, including early wills and marriages heretofore unpublished

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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL
GENEALOGY COLLECTION

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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 1833 01332 6860

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

http://www.archive.org/details/hunterfamilyrecoOOclemin

An Account of the First American Settlers

and Colonial Families of the Name of

Hunter, and Other Genealogical and

Historical Data, Mostly New and

Original Material, Including

Early Wills and Marriages

Heretofore Unpublished

By ,
WILLIAM M. CLEMENS,

Limited Edition.

Offf

1914

NEW YORK

WILLIAM M. CLEMENS

Publisher

45 and 49 William Street

1588133

V r — — : _ . _

HUNTER FAMILY RECORDS.

CONTAINING

Royal Descent of the Hunter Family.

Scotch and English Forebears.

Early Arrivals in Virginia.

Emigrants to New England.

Massachusetts Colonists.

New York Families of Early Days.

Early New York Marriages.

Presbyterian Church Records.

New York Hunters in the Revolution.

New York State Wills.

Early Marriages in Virginia.

Virginia Abstracts of Wills.

The Hunters in Congress.

Nancy Hunter of Kentucky.

Pennsylvania Muster Rolls.

THE HUNTER FAMILY.

The Hunter family is of royal descent from
King Edward I, of England, through his second
son, Edmund, Earl of Kent, whose daughter, Lady
Joan Plantagenet, was the wife of Thomas, Lord
Holland. Her great-great-granddaughter, Prin-
cess Jane Stuart, became the wife of George Gor-
don, second Earl of Huntly and Lord Chancellor.
Their daughter, Lady Isabel Gordon, was married
to William Hay, third Earl of Erroll. Their
great-grandson, Andrew Hay, became the seventh
Earl. By his wife, Lady Agnes Sinclair, daughter
of the fourth Earl of Caithness, he had a son, Hon.
Sir George Hay, of Killour, who married Eliza-
bette, daughter of Sir Patrick Cheyne, of Essel-
mont. Their daughter, Anne, became the wife of
William Moray of Abercairney, who died in 1642.
Their son, Robert Moray, was knighted by
Charles I. His daughter, Anne, married David
Graham, of Fintry, ninth in descent from Sir
William Graham of Kincardine and the Lady,
Mary Stuart. Their daughter, Amelia Graham,
became the wife of Alexander Hunter, of Black-
ness, County Forfar, in 1741.

4 HUNTER FAMILY

Burke's ''Landed Gentry" states that "two
ancient families of the name of Hunter existed
in Scotland for many centuries." These were
the Hunters of Tweeddale, now extinct, and the
Hunters of Hunterston, who owned the present
estates as early as the time of Alexander II, King
of Scotland. In 1375 William Hunter obtained
a charter from King Robert II, for a part of the
Barony of Amele.' These lands are now known as
Campbellton, and are still possessed by the family.
Dr. John Hunter, discoverer of the circulation of
the blood, was a member of the family of Hunters-
ton.

Andrew Hunter, of County Londonderry, Ire-
land, was born in 1640, and it was the family tradi-
tion that his birthplace was the ancestral home of
the Hunters of Hunterston in Scotland. His son,
Hugh, married Isabella Semple, and their son,
David Hunter, lived in York county, Pennsyl-
vania. He married Martha Mcllhenny in 1745.
He was a captain of a York county Company in
the French and Indian War, and a member of the
expedition against Fort Duquesne. Capt. Hunter
mysteriously disappeared in the summer of 1776,
and his family never saw or heard from him
again. His fate was not known until nearly a
century afterward, when, on the destruction of
an old house in the Valley of Virginia by Union
soldiers, a paper was discovered concerning him.

HUNTEB FAMILY 5

It was given to his great-grandson, Captain David
Hunter Strother, and was found to be a writ of
habeas corpus, issued in the name of ''George
in Rex," by authority of the Governor of Vir-
ginia, Lord Dunmore, directing the sheriff of
Berkeley county to bring the body of David Hun-
ter to the capitol at Williamsburg. Captain Hun-
ter was a patriot, and Lord Dunmore, last of the
English Governors of Virginia, was notorious for
his cruelties and injustice to the colonists.

Captain David Hunter bore the arms of the
family of Calderwood, Scotland, "Vert, three
dogs of the chase courant argent collared or; on
a chief of the second as many hunting horns of
the first, stringed gules. Crest: A greyhound
sejant argent collared or Motto: Cur sum per-
ficio."

The descendants of this line of the family are
distinguished in the annals of Virginia, and
allied with the Washington, Dandridge, Spotts-
wood, and many other historic families.

The following is the ship record of another of
the name of Hunter, who immigrated to Virginia,
June 6, 1635 :

"Vj * Junij 1635.

"Theis vnder- written names are to be trans-
ported to Virginia imbarqued in the Thomas &
John Richard Lambard Mr: being examined by

6 HUNTER FAMILY

the Minister de Gravesend concerning their con-
formitie to the orders & discipline of the Church
of England : And tooke the oathe of Allegeance.

yeres

Francis Hunter 19"

On "A list of the names of the Dead in Vir-
gna since Aprill last," is the name, recorded
February 16, 1623, as of the tract called the "Col-
ledge," of John Hunter, among the killed.

The name of Thomas Hunter appears on "A
list of the Burialles in Elizabeth City, 1624."

Among early immigrants to New England were
four of the name, as shown by the following ship
record :

"These under written names are to be trans-
ported to X. England imbarqued in the Blessing
from the Ministers & Justices of their conformitie
in Religion & that they are no subsedymen.

"Christian Hunter 20

"Eliz. Hunter 18

"Tho. Hunter .14

"Wm. Hunter 11"

John Hunter was in New Haven, Connecticut,
in 1644. He died in 1648 or '49.

Eobert Hunter, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, was
a freeman October 7, 1640. His wife, Mary, was
mentioned in his will, dated 1647, but no children.

HUNTER FAMILY 7

Another Robert Hunter, of Ipswich, had several
children. Thomas, the eldest, died in 1687. It is
believed that Thomas Hunter, of Marblehead,
1653, was his son.

Another Thomas was in Springfield, in 1678.

"William Hunter, of Boston, married, first, in
1657, Cicely ? She probably died soon after-
ward. His second wife was Mary, only child of
Richard Carter. By her he had children. Savage,
in his "Genealogical Dictionary," says that the
four young passengers of the ship Blessing, the
record of whose sailing appears above, may have
been children of this "William, sent to join him in
New England.

"William Hunter, of Springfield, had sons,
James and John, killed by Indians, July 4, 1676.

Another William was in Barnstable at an early
date.

Edward Hunter, of Marlboro, was born in 1716,
and died there in 1797. He was a member of the
General Court, 1776-7. His son, Jonathan Hun-
ter, was born in Marlboro in 1753. He married
Hannah W7alkup, of Sudbury, Massachusetts.
They removed to Plattsburg, New York. Their
son, Solomon, lived in Orwell, Ohio.

Joseph Hunter, of Nantucket, Mass., and Annah

8 HUNTER FAMILY

Hawes, of Chatham, Mass., published their mar-
riage intention February 20, 1766. She was born
1738, and was living as Annah Hunter in 1781.

A distinguished member of the family in
America included William L. Hunter, who died at
Newport, Rhode Island, in 1849, aged seventy-
five. He graduated at Brown University in 1791.
He was admitted to the Bar, at Newport, at the
age of twenty-one. In 1799 he entered the state
legislature, and served at various times until 1811,
when he became a Senator in Congress, in which
omce he remained until 1821. In 1834 he was
appointed charge to Brazil, and continued there,
as minister until 1844, when he returned to New-
port, and resided there until his death.

General Alexander Hunter died at Washington,
D. C, in 1849, aged fifty- nine. He was marshall
of the District of Columbia.
' Edmund P. Hunter died at Berkely Springs,
Virginia, in 1859. He was a lawyer and member
of the legislature.

William Hunter was Assistant Secretary of
State. His son, Lieut. H. C. Hunter, of the United
States Navy, died at Barcelona, Spain, in 1873.

Revolutionary officers of the name are Alex-
ander, Daniel, Ephraim and James, of Pennsyl-
vania ; David, of South Carolina ; James, of North

HUNTER FAMILY

Carolina; Andrew, of New Jersey; Elijah and
John, of New York.

Robert Hunter, Colonial Governor of New
York, was the son of James Hunter, a lawyer. In
early life he was apprenticed to an apothecary.
He entered the army, and rose to the rank of
Major-General. He was appointed Lieut.-Gov. of
Virginia, in 1707, but on his way there was cap-
tured by a French privateer and carried back. He
was Governor of New York from 1710 to 1719.
As the representative of the Crown, he purchased
from Robert Livingston, for £400 sterling, a
great tract of land in Livingston Manor to pro-
vide homestead sites and ground for three thous-
and Palatines who had been sent to colonize the
Hudson Valley by the English government. On
the death of the Duke of Portland, he became
Governor of Jamaica, where he died in 1734.

George Hunter, one of the earliest residents of
New York City, married Ruth, the widow of John
Broome, in 1777. Mr. Hunter died in 1799. They
had one son, born 4th August, 1788. He was
named John Hunter. He resided at 5 State Street
for many years, from 1801 to 1812. He was the
Hunter of Hunter's Island. He became very dis-
tinguished in after years, and was well known to
many of the last generation. In a convention

10 HUNTER FAMILY

to amend the Constitution of this State, John
Hunter was the oldest member present.

Miss Catharine Stewart Hunter, who was born
in New York, is a descendant of Capt. Elijah
Hunter, of New York. She is a daughter of Dr.
Abraham Thew Hunter and Adeline Morrison, his
wife; granddaughter of Ezra Hunter and Rachel
Thew, his wife; gr.-granddaughter of Elijah Hun-
ter and Anna Drake, his wife. Elijah Hunter,
1775, was lieutenant in Capt. Daniel Mills' com-
pany, Col. James Holmes ' regiment, and was cap-
tain of grenadiers at the Battle of White Plains.
He served as a delegate from Westchester county

to the Assembly. He was born at New Castle,
1749, and died, 1815, at Mount Pleasant (Sing
Sing).

The Brick Presbyterian Church records in New
York City are as follows:
HUNTER, , son of Charles, bpt. Apr.,

1849.
HUNTER, Adelina M., mem. June, 1827, now

Cooke, dism. Oct., 1859.
HUNTER, Caroline M. (Miss), mem. Jan., 1903,

let. .
HUNTER, Caroline M. (Mrs.), mem. Jan., 1903,

let., wife of Chas. A.
HUNTER, Charles, mem. Apr., 1829, conf.
HUNTER, Charles, mem. July, 1835, let.

HUNTER FAMILY 11

HUNTER, Charles, dism. 1833.

HUNTER, Charles, mem. July, 1835, let.
(dead?), retired.

HUNTER, Charles A., mem. Jan., 1903, let.

HUNTER, John Wallace, mar. Ann Eliza Stan-
ton, Jan., 1817.

HUNTER, Robert W., mar. Mary Clifton Harri-
son, Apr. 17, 1861 (by William J. Hoge).

HUNTER, Sarah H. (Miss), mem. Jan., 1903, let.

HUNTER, Sarah J., mem. July, 1835, wife of
Charles, dism. June, 1862.

HUNTER, Sarah J., mem. July, 1860, dism. June,
1862.

HUNTER, Sarah J., mem. Apr., 1829, wife of
Charles, conf.

HUNTER, Sarah J., dism. 1833.

HUNTER, Sarah J., mem. July, 1833, let., wife
of Charles.

HUNTER, Stephen Vanarden, b. Sept. 23, 1834,
bpt. Feb. 20, 1835.

The New York Hunters in the Revolution were
as follows:

Andrew Hunter. James Hunter.

Archibald Hunter. John Hunter.

Benjamin Hunter. Jonathan Hunter.

David Hunter. Matthew Hunter.

Ebenezer Hunter. Moses Hunter.

Elijah Hunter. Robert Hunter.

12 HUNTER FAMILY

Ezekial Hunter. Samuel Hunter.

Frederick Hunter. Stephen Hunter.

George Hunter. Thomas Hunter.

Two wills of Hunters in New York State are
thus recorded.

"Will of Alexander Hunter, Homer, Cortland
co., N. Y., July 15, 1833.

To son William Hunter.

To son Charles H. Hunter.

To son James Hunter.

To son John Hunter.

To son Alexander Hunter.

To daughter Nancy Hunter.

To daughter Margaret Hunter.

To nieces Diana and Sally, daughters of James
Hunter.

"Will of John Hunter, of Ulysses, Cayuga co.,
N. Y., Nov. 3, 1802, July 13, 1803.

"Wife Eve; Daughters Mary "Warms, Catherine
Sager, Jane Vomp.

Elizabeth Vandergrist, Eve Fleming, & my eld-
est son James.

Sons Johoekem & John, Jr.

Benj. Coykendall & "Walter Van Ornam, Exs.

Rhoda & Lydia Gardner & Richard Pangburn,
Witnesses.

Among the early New York State marriages in
the Hunter family were the following :

HTJNTEB FAMILY 13

1765, May 20, Agnes Hunter and Wm. Wallace.
1781, Sept. 25, Anna Hunter and Robert Gra-
ham.

1763, Nov. 2, Elenor Hunter and Christopher

Sweedland.

1768, Sept. 28, Elijah Hunter and Ann Drake.
1737, June 4, Elizabeth Hunter and John Ward.
1760, Nov. 13, Elizabeth and Wm. Taylor.
1781, Oct. 12, George Hunter and Ann Bennet.
1757, April 12, Jos. Hunter and Mary Burnett.

1769, Feb. 16, Mary Hunter and John Schuyler.
1777, Dec. 16, Rachel Hunter and James Gal-
breath.

1737, Nov. 19, Rachel Hunter and Edward
Smith.

1764, Oct. 9, William Hunter and Elenor Mc-
Neil.

J

Early Virginia marriages of the Hunters were :
HUNTER, Eliza & John Vernon, Sept. 6, 1792,

Rockbridge Co., Va.
HUNTER, Isabella & William Hall, Sept. 6, 1792,

Rockbridge Co., Va.
HUNTER, Jean & Abraham Case, Sept. 7, 1790,

Rockbridge Co., Va.
HUNTER, John & Mary Early, Feb. 5, 1790,

Campbell Co., Va.
HUNTER, Mary & David Kingen, Oct. 25, 1792,

Rockbridge Co., Va.

14 HUNTER FAMILY

HUNTER, Miles & Sally Pritchard, 1788, Din-
widdle Co., Va.

HUNTER, Pamelia & Samuel C. Burks, Oct. 8,
1811, Rockbridge Co., Va.

HUNTER, Peter & Sarah Nowlin, Dec. 17, 1790,
Campbell Co., Va.

HUNTER, Robert & Nancy Ellis, 1793, Amherst
Co., Va.

Early Virginia wills are recorded as follows :
HUNTER, ALEX'R

Bedford Co, Va. Will filed March 22, 1768.

s. Alexander Hunter.

s. James Hunter.

s. Samuel Hunter.

d. Betty Hunter.
HUNTER, JOHN

Campbell Co, Va. Will filed June 7, 1796.

wife (former husband Jere Early).

s. Benjamin Hunter.

s. John Hunter.

8. Alexander Hunter.

s. Robert Hunter.

s. James Hunter.

d. Elizabeth Hunter.

Israel Dodge, born in Connecticut, September
3, 1760, at adult age moved to Kentucky, where
he married Nancy Ann Hunter, born in Carlisle,

1568133

HUNTER FAMILY

15

Pa., daughter of Joseph Hunter, and wife, Anne
Homes, of the Scotch-Irish emigration, which has
furnished so many strong men to the nation. They
had children, Nancy and Henry.

Nancy Hunter married, second, Asael, son of
the brave William Linn, who served with Col.
Clark at Kaskaskia, and had a son, Lewis Fields,
born November 24, 1793, who served in the U. S.
Senate from Missouri 1833-45. She thus furnishes
the only instance in this country of a mother with
two sons serving the U. S. Senate at the same time,
Lewis Fields Linn from Missouri, and his half-
brother, Henry Dodge, serving from Wisconsin.

Nancy Dodge (sister of Henry Dodge), daugh-
ter of Ann Hunter and Israel Dodge, married in
Ste. Genevieve, first, Joseph Conn, and had a son,
Joseph H. Conn, a well-known business man of St.
Louis, who married Elizabeth Anderson, and had
five children, the youngest of whom, Nancy Dodge,
married Wm. McLanahan and resides in St. Louis.

The list of Hunters who served in Congress
from 1776 to the present day is as follows :
HUNTER, Andrew Jackson, a representative

from Illinois, born in Greencastle, Ind., Dec.

17, 1831, died in Paris 111., Jan. 12, 1913.
HUNTER, John, a representative and a senator

from South Carolina, born in South Carolina

about 1760.

16 HUNTER FAMILY

HUNTER, John Ward, a representative from
New York, born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 15,

1807, died April 16, 1900.

HUNTER, Morton Craig, a representative from
Indiana, born in Versailles, Ind., Feb. 5, 1825,
died Oct, 25, 1896.

HUNTER, Narsworthy, a delegate from Missis-
sippi Territory, died in Washington, D. C,
March 1, 1802.

HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, a repre-
sentative and a senator from Virginia, born
in Essex Co., Va., April 21, 1809, died in
Essex County, Va., July 18, 1887.

HUNTER, Whiteside Godfrey, a representative
from Kentucky, born Dec. 25, 1841.

HUNTER, William, a senator from Rhode Island,
born in Newport, R. I., Nov. 26, 1774, died in
Newport, R. I., Dec. 3, 1849.

HUNTER, William, a representative from Ver-
mont in 1S17.

HUNTER, William Forrest, a representative
from Ohio, born in Alexandria, Va., Dec. 10,

1808, died in Woodsfield, Ohio, March 30, 1874.
HUNTER, William H., a representative from

Ohio in 1837.

The Pennsylvania Muster Rolls of 1776-1783,
contain the following Hunters :

Cyrus Hunter, 1781, Westmoreland Co., ensign.

HTJNTEK FAMILY 17

John Hunter, 1782, "Westmoreland, Co., private.
George Hunter, 1782, Bedford Co., private.
John Hunter, 1782, Cumberland Co., private.
Jonathan Hunter, 1781, Philadelphia Co., pri-
vate.

David Hunter, 1781, Philadelphia Co., private.

GENEALOGY, 45 William Street, New York,
reports the following unclaimed Hunter estates :

Hunter, Arthur, Camden, N. J., 1895.

Hunter, Louisa, New York, 1850.

Hunter, Nathaniel W., U. S. Army, 1864.

Hunter, Eobert or Hugh, Philadelphia, Pa.,
1880.

Hunter, Stuart A., New York.