Researching John Hunt

John Wesley Hunt was born in 1773 in Trenton, New Jersey. He was the son of a Lt. Col. in the Revolutionary War, Abraham Hunt, and Theodosia Pearson Hunt. Moving to Lexington in 1795, he became a merchant, horsebreeder, hemp manufacturer, and banker. In 1799, President John Adams named Hunt as postmaster of Lexington.

A horsebreeder, he introduced the Messenger strain to Kentucky in the winter of 1839-1840.

He married Catherine Grosh, and in 1814, he built a two-story brick mansion known as "Hopemont" (today known as The Hunt-Morgan House) for him and his wife. Their son Charlton Hunt became the first mayor of Lexington.

He died in 1849. He was buried in the family plot at the Lexington Cemetery. His grandson, John Hunt Morgan, was a famous Confederate general during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. A great-grandson, Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan, was the first Kentuckian to win a Nobel Prize.

John Hunt, the son of Robert Hunt, Jr. (April 21, 1709 – February 29, 1764) and Abigail Wood (c. 1715 – February 22, 1747), his wife, was born August 5, 1740, at the small, rural community of Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant is located in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey about two miles east of the town of Columbus. His father was a first cousin to John Woolman, the renowned Quaker minister. The family moved to a farm at Colestown, a small community located a few miles south of Moorestown. Here, Abigail Hunt died February 22, 1747. Robert Hunt and Martha Bates (c. 1725 – 1770), widow of George Ward, were married in May 1749. Robert Hunt's seven children, from both marriages, lived together on the farm at Colestown.

John Hunt and Esther Warrington were married March 17, 1763, in the Friends Meetinghouse at Moorestown. They had ten children, three of whom died young. Hunt was a Quaker minister for more than 50 years.

John Hunt died September 21, 1824, and was buried in the Moorestown Friends burial ground.

His memorial, published in 1842, highlighted his public testimony concerning pride and superfluity, and stated that he was particularly concerned with temperance.

Prior to 1769, John Hunt was a London merchant and shipper dealing in tobacco and general merchandise. Between 1738 and 1768, John Hunt made several voyages between London, Philadelphia and Virginia.

In 1769, John Hunt, a widower, emigrated to the province of Pennsylvania with his three children: Dorothea, Elizabeth and John. The Hunt family settled near Philadelphia at Darby. John Hunt married Rachel Tory, a widow, on November 28, 1769.

Some modern writers have confused the John Hunt (1712 – 1778), who is the subject of this article, with another Quaker named John Hunt (1711 – 1729) who also lived near Philadelphia at Moorestown, New Jersey. Adding to the confusion, another Quaker minister by the name of John Hunt (1740 – 1824) also lived at Moorestown.

He has written numerous books which include The Pre-Raphaelite Imagination: 1848–1900 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968), his Critical Commentary on Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" (Macmillan 1968), studies of Marvell, Ruskin, and William Kent, his classic Garden and Grove: The Italian Renaissance Garden in the English Imagination: 1600–1750 (J. M. Dent, 1986), Greater Perfections (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), Picturesque Garden in Europe (Thames & Hudson, 2002), and The Afterlife of Gardens (Reaktion Books, 2004), A World of Gardens (Reaktion Books, 2012) and The Making of Place: Modern and Contemporary Gardens (Reaktion Books, 2015).

Hunt was born in Kalgoorlie to Ruby Maud (née Seddon) and Edwin Charles Hunt. He attended Eastern Goldfields High School and then farmed in Moorine Rock for several years. He later worked as a miner in Kalgoorlie and Marvel Loch. Hunt enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1942, and during the war serving in New Guinea and Borneo with the 2/6th Commando Squadron. He was discharged in 1946, and in 1953 moved to the Pilbara, initially working at Wittenoom for ABA. He was later employed by the Mines Department, as a workmen's inspector based out of Port Hedland.

From 1964 to 1971, Hunt served on the Port Hedland Shire Council, including as shire president for several years. He was elected to parliament at a February 1971 by-election, caused by the resignation of Harry Strickland. At the 1974 state election, Hunt was narrowly defeated by John Tozer of the Liberal Party. He eventually retired to Perth, dying in Shenton Park in July 1988, aged 75. Hunt had married Dorothy Ellen Barger in 1933, with whom he had two children.