Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/284

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Hunt
278
Hunt

cesses and principles of photography, which was printed in the association's reports.

In 1854 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. As secretary of the Cornwall Polytechnic, Hunt had frequently urged the value of technical instruction for all engaged in mining, and in 1859, at a meeting called by him, the 'Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon' was instituted. It still does good work in scientific training for the local industries. In 1859 Hunt was chosen president of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In 1866 he was a member of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the quantity of coal consumed in manufactories.

Three editions (in 1860, 1867, 1875) of Ure's 'Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines,' were edited by Hunt, the first containing important changes and additions. His last work (pp.xx,944), 'British Mining,' appeared in 1884, and contains a mass of valuable results, e.g. results of the royal commission of 1866, an historical sketch of mining, the geology of mineral deposits and formation of metalliferous veins, details of the operation of extracting ores, machinery and ventilation of mines, and the future prospects of British mining. Among Hunt's minor scientific works was `The History and Statistics of Gold,' 1851; and he also published 'Poetry of Science' (London, 1848); `Panthea, the Sport of Nature' (London, 1849); and `Popular Romances of the West of England' (London, 1865). Hunt contributed to various periodicals, and for many years was the chief contributor to the scientific columns of the `Athenæum.' For this dictionary (vols. iv-xviii.) he wrote several articles on men of science. Hunt died at Chelsea on 17 Oct. 1887. A `Robert Hunt Memorial Museum' has since been established at Redruth, Cornwall, by the miners and others, assisted by some of his friends in London.

[Athenæum, 22 Oct. 1887; Ann. Reg. 1887; Times, 20 Oct. 1887; Western Morning News, 27 March 1889; Biograph, August 1881; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub.]

R. E. A.

HUNT, ROGER (fl. 1433), speaker of the House of Commons, may have belonged to the same family as the Thomas Hunt who was prior of Walsingham in 1455 (Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 347, cp. i. 443). He was probably the son of Roger Hunt who was attornatus regis in 1406; he lived at Chalverston in Bedfordshire. He was returned to the House of Commons as member for the county of Bedford in 1414 and 1420, and afterwards sat for Huntingdonshire until 1433. In 1420 he became speaker, and held the office for that session and for the session of 1433; in the latter year the plague necessitated a prorogation. Hunt was a lawyer, and was counsel for John Mowbray, the earl-marshal, against the representative of the Earl of Warwick in 1425 in a dispute as to precedence. In 1438 he became a baron of the exchequer, and in 1433 a grant of 200l. was made to him from the customs of London. Hunt was married, and left a son Roger.

[Manning's Lives of the Speakers, p.65; Foss's Judges of England, p. 358; Return of Members of Parliament, vol. i.]

W. A. J. A.

HUNT, THOMAS (1611–1683), schoolmaster, son of Henry Hunt, was born in Worcester in 1611. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1628, and proceeded M.A. in 1636. He kept a private school for sometime in Salisbury, afterwards became master of the church school at St. Dunstan's-in-the East, London, and at a later date was master of the free school of St. Saviour's, Southwark. He died on 23 Jan. 1682-3, and was buried in St. Saviour's Church. He wrote:

  1. 'Libellus Orthographicus; or the diligent Schoolboy's Directory,' London, 1661; often reprinted.
  2. 'Abecedarium Scholasticum; or the Grammar-Scholar's Abecedary.'

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 81; Chambers's Worcestershire Biog. p. 587.]

W. A. J. A.

HUNT, THOMAS (1627?–1688), lawyer, son of Richard Hunt, was born in the Austin Friars in London, and was successively scholar, fellow, and M.A. of Queens' College, Cambridge. He was admitted to Gray's Inn on 12 Nov. 1650, and was in 1659 appointed clerk of assize to the Oxford circuit. He was ejected from that office upon the Restoration in the following year, and from 1660 to 1683 lived chiefly at Banbury, where he not only practised law, but acted as steward on the estates of both the Duke of Buckingham and the Duke of Norfolk. Hunt appeared in the trial of Lord Stafford, November 1680, among the counsel who were retained to argue the necessity of two witnesses to every overt act of high treason on the part of the accused, and in the same year he published a tract in support of the Exclusion Bill, entitled 'Great and weighty Considerations relating to the Duke of York, or Successor of the Crown,' London, 8vo. This he followed up in 1682 with `An Argument for the Bishop's Right in judging in capital causes in Parliament …,' to which was shortly afterwards added a 'Postscript for rectifying some Mistakes in some of the inferior Clergy, mischievous to our Government and Religion.' In the preface to the 'Postscript,' which gave him the title of 'Postscript Hunt,' he