Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/290

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Hunter
284
Hunter

ability to the institution, he prevailed on the members to reduce their thoughts and observations into writing.' These essays, on the food of plants, composts, &c., were edited by him in four volumes (London, 1770-2), under the title of `Georgical Essays,' and were so 'much valued as to be reprinted three times (once at London and twice at York) before 1803. His `New Method of Raising Wheat for a Series of Years on the Same Land' appeared in 1796, York, 4to.

In 1772 Hunter set to work to establish the York Lunatic Asylum. The building was finished in 1777, and Hunter was physician to it for many years. His continued interest in rural economy was shown in an elaborate illustrated edition, with notes, of Evelyn's `Sylva,' in 1 vol. 4to, 1776 (reprinted in 1786, in 2 vols. in 1801, and again, after his death, in 1812). In 1778 he edited Evelyn's 'Terra,' and joined it to the third edition of the 'Sylva,' 1801. He was elected F.R.S. (Lond.) in 1775, and F.R.S. (Edinb.) in 1790. He was also made an honorary member of the Board of Agriculture, and in 1795 addressed a pamphlet to Sir John Sinclair on `Outlines of Agriculture' (2nd edit. 1797). In 1797 he published `An Illustration of the Analogy between Vegetable and Animal Parturition,' London, 8vo. He was author of a tract on the curability of consumption, extracted from the manuscript of William White of York, of which a French translation by A. A. Tardy (London, 1793 ) is known; and also of a cookery-book, called 'Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ.' first published in 1804, reprinted in 1805, 1806, and 1807, and finally in 1820 under the title 'Receipts in Modern Cookery.' A production of his old age, which became well known, was a collection of maxims called `Men and Manners; or Concentrated Wisdom.' It quickly reached a third edition in 1808. The last edition contains 1,146 maxims, chiefly trite and good, but mixed with a few of inferior quality, which have every appearance of being original. He died on 17 May 1809, and was buried in the church of St. Michael le Belfry at York. He was twice married, first, in 1765, to Elizabeth Dealtry of Gainsborough, by whom he had two sons and one daughter, who predeceased him, and secondly, in 1799, to Anne Bell of Welton, near Hull, who survived him.

[Memoir prefixed to 4th ed. of his Evelyn's Sylva, 1812; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 525; Gent. Mag. 1808 ii. 613, 1809 i. 483.]

C. C.

HUNTER, ANDREW, D.D. (1743–1809), professor of divinity at Edinburgh, born in Edinburgh in 1743, was the eldest son of Andrew Hunter of Park, writer to the signet, of the Abbotshill branch of the Hunters of Hunterston, Ayrshire. His mother was Grizel, daughter of General Maxwell of Cardoness in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. After an education at a private school in Edinburgh, he passed to the university, where he completed the usual course of study in arts and divinity. He subsequently spent a year at the university of Utrecht studying theology. He was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1767, but, unwilling to be separated from his father, he declined for some years to accept a pastoral charge. During this period he was an active member of several literary and theological societies, and his reading and studies were directed by Robert Walker [q.v.] of the High Church, Edinburgh, the colleague of Dr. Blair, and one of the best preachers of the time. In 1770 he was ordained, and inducted as minister of the New Church, Dumfries, and soon afterwards he purchased the estate of Barjarg in that county. He was translated to New Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, in 1779, and at the same time was appointed colleague and successor to Dr. Robert Hamiliton in the professorship of divinity in the university. In 1786 he was translated to the Tron Church, was moderator of the general assembly in 1792, declined soon afterwards the offer of a royal chaplaincy, and died 21 April 1809. He was a prominent member of the evangelical section of the church. Inheriting an ample fortune, he taught the divinity class without remuneration as long as Dr. Hamilton lived, often helped poor students with pecuniary aid, and gave largely to the charitable and religious enterprises of the time. He married in 1779 Marion Schaw, eldest daughter of William, sixth lord Napier, by whom he had William Francis, advocate, who took the additional name of Arundel, and succeeded to the estate of Barjarg; John, D.D., minister of Swinton, and afterwards of the Tron Church, Edinburgh; and Grizel, who married George Ross, esq., advocate.

Hunter published three separate sermons (1775, 1792, and 1797). Two other of his sermons are in the `Scottish Preacher.'

[Scott's Fasti; Bower's Univ. of Edinb.; Kay's Portraits; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]

G. W. S.

HUNTER, ANNE (1742–1821), poetess, eldest daughter of Robert Home, surgeon, and sister of Sir Everard Home [q. v.], married in July 1771 John Hunter [q. v.] the great surgeon. Before her marriage she had gained some note as a lyrical poetess, her 'Flower of the Forest' appearing in 'The Lark,' an Edinburgh periodical, in 1765. Her social