Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/302

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Hunter
296
Hunter

he was elected professor of humanity in St. Andrews University, holding the post till 1835, when he was appointed principal of the united colleges of St. Salvator's and St. Leonard's. He died of cholera, 18 Jan. 1837. Hunter was twice married: first to Elizabeth Miln, by whom he had a family of seventeen children; and, secondly, to Margaret Hadow, daughter of Professor Hadow of St. Andrews. All his family save one reached manhood. His eldest son, James Hunter, became professor of logic at St. Andrews, while Thomas Gillespie (1777-1844) [q. v.], who succeeded him in the chair of humanity, was his son-in-law. A portrait of Hunter, by Sir J. Watson Gordon, is in the great hall of the United College, St. Andrews, and a chalk sketch, representing him as a younger man, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

In 1788 Hunter contributed to the 'Edinburgh Philological Transactions' an article on 'The Nature, Import, and Effect of certain Conjunctions.' In 1796 he published at St. Andrews a complete edition of Sallust, and in 1797 an edition of Horace, which he reissued in 1813 in two volumes. In 1809 he published Cæsar's 'De Bello Gallico et Civili Commentarii' (2 vols.), and in 1810 he sent out in similar form his `Virgil,' first edited in 1797. He edited in 1820 Ruddiman's `Latin Rudiments,' adding a scholarly and logical disquisition on the `Moods and Tenses of the Greek and Latin Verb.' This text-book has reached a twenty-second edition. Hunter's Livy—`Historiarum Libri quinque Priores'—which is still acknowledged to be valuable by competent authorities, appeared in 1822. The article 'Grammar' in the seventh edition of the ' Encyclopædia Britannica,' though not written by Hunter, was in large measure constructed from his teaching.

Hunter helped in municipal work at St. Andrews, and to him was largely due the introduction of the Pipeland water supply, which is still serviceable. He was an accomplished horticulturist, and a potato called after him the `Hunter kidney' was long a favourite in Scotland.

[Information from Miss Leslie, Edinburgh, Hunter's great-granddaughter, and from Dr. Birrell and Mr. J. Maitland Anderson, St. Andrews; Scotsman of 25 Jan. 1837; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen.]

T. B.


HUNTER, JOHN KELSO (1802–1873), artist and cobbler, second son of one Hunter of Chirnside who removed to Ayrshire in 1799, and died there about 1810, was born at Dunkeith, Ayrshire, on 15 Dec. 1802, and was for some time employed as a herd-boy. He was then apprenticed to a shoemaker, and on the expiration of his indentures settled at Kilmarnock in the pursuit of his calling. He afterwards taught himself portrait-painting, attained to a respectable position as an artist, and removed to Glasgow, where he was employed alternately as an artist and a shoemaker. In 1847 he exhibited a portrait of himself as a cobbler at the Royal Academy, London. In 1868 he published his first book, ‘The Retrospect of an Artist's Life.’ Acquainted in his youth with many who had known Robert Burns, and with some of the heroes of the poet's verse, Hunter embodied these recollections in a volume entitled ‘Life Studies of Character,’ printed in 1870. The book throws much light on the works of Burns, especially on the original of Dr. Hornbook, and faithfully describes the society into which the poet was born. Valuable notices are supplied of the song writer, Tannahill, and other minor poets of the north. His third work was ‘Memorials of West-Country Men and Manners.’ Hunter was known for his sturdy independence, and had a wide circle of friends. He died at Pollokshields, near Glasgow, on 3 Feb. 1873.

[Times, 6 Feb. 1873, p. 7; Ann. Reg. 1873, p. 129; Illustrated London News, 8 Feb. 1873, p. 126; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, 1881, p. 226.]

G. C. B.


HUNTER, JOSEPH (1783–1861), antiquary, was born at Sheffield on 6 Feb. 1783, being the son of Michael Hunter, who was engaged in the cutlery business. His mother dying while he was very young, he was placed under the guardianship of Joseph Evans, a presbyterian minister, who sent him to a school near Sheffield, where he received the rudiments of a classical education, while he devoted all his spare moments to antiquarian studies and to the collection of church notes, filling many volumes, still in existence, with copies of monumental inscriptions, coats of arms, and the like. He was removed in 1809 to a college at York, where he studied for the presbyterian ministry under the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved. In 1809 he became minister of a presbyterian congregation at Bath, where he resided for twenty-four years. In addition to his pastoral duties, he augmented the collection of materials for the history of his native town, part of which he embodied in his `Hallamshire,' published in 1819. This was followed by two volumes of the `History of the Deanery of Doncaster' in 1828 and 1831. He was one of the original members of the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution, and also a valued member of the `Stourhead Circle,' of which he afterwards printed some account. The latter