Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hunt, Nicholas
HUNT, NICHOLAS (1596–1648), arithmetician, born in 1596 in Devonshire, was entered at Exeter College, Oxford, 12 April 1612, and graduated B.A. 19 April 1616. On the title-page of his first work (1628) he is designated 'preacher of Christ's Word.' According to Wood, he is identical with a Nicholas Hunt, born at or near Exeter, who lived at Camberwell, Surrey, in 1647, was for many years one of the `proctors of the arches,' and died in 1648.
Hunt's works are: 1. `The Devout Christian Communicant instructed in the Two Sacraments of the New Testament,' London, 1628. 2. `Newe Recreations, or the Mindes Release and Solacing,' London, 1631, 12mo. Another title-page of this book runs: `Judiciary Exercises, or Practical Conclusions,' London, 1631, dedicated to Charles I, and containing arithmetical conundrums and numerical problems. 3. `Handmaid to Arithmetick refin'd, shewing the variety and working of all Rules, in whole Numbers and Fractions, after most pleasant and profitable waies, abounding with Tables for Monies, Measures, and Weights, Rules for Commutations and Exchanges for Merchants and their Factors,' London, 1633. 4. `The New-borne Christian, or a Lively Patterne and Perfect representation of the Saint Militant Child of God,' London, 1634.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 589; De Morgan's Arith. Works, pp. 39, 40.]