congregation at Amsterdam. He always preached without notes, and his memory was so good that he could recall the language of an unwritten sermon fourteen years after its delivery. On his return to England he was for three years (1704-7) assistant to John Green, an ejected divine, who had formed an independent church at Tunstead, Norfolk. Here, according to Harmer, he was ordained.
Coming up to London in 1707, Hunt accepted a call to succeed Richard Wavel, an ejected divine (d. 9 Dec. 1705), as pastor of the independent church at Pinners' Hall, Old Broad Street. Here he renewed his acquaintance with Lardner, whose testimony to the breadth and depth of his learning is very emphatic. They were members of a ministers' club which met on Thursdays at Chew's coffee-house in Bow Lane. Hunt was accounted 'a rational preacher;' his matter was practical, his method expository, his style easy. His admirers admitted that 'he only pleases the discerning few' (Character of the Dissenting Ministers; see Protestant Dissenters' Mag. 1798, p. 314). How far he diverged from the traditional Calvinism of dissent is not clear. Isaac Watts says that some 'suspected him of Socinianising,' but unjustly. In 1719 he voted with the nonsubscribers at Salters' Hall [see Bradbury, Thomas], but took no part in the controversy. John Shute Barrington, first viscount Barrington [q. v.], the leader of the nonsubscribers, joined his church. At Barrington's seat, Tofts in Essex, he was in the habit of meeting Anthony Collins [q. v.] On 31 May 1729 he was made D.D. by Edinburgh University. In 1730, though an independent, he was elected a trustee of Dr. Williams's foundations. He took part in 1734-5 in a course of dissenting lectures against popery, his subject being penances and pilgrimages. He was also one of the disputants in certain 'conferences' held with Roman catholics, on 7 and 13 Feb. 1735, at the Bell Tavern, Nicholas Lane.
He died on 5 Sept. 1744. He married a distant relative of Lardner, who preached his funeral sermon at Pinners' Hall.
Lardner gives a list of eleven separate sermons by Hunt, published between 1716 and 1736; eight of them are funeral sermons. He published also:
- 'Mutual Love recommended upon Christian Principles,' &c., 1728, 8vo.
- 'An Essay towards explaining the History and Revelations of Scripture … Part I.,' &c., 1734, 8vo (deals with Genesis; no other part published; appended is a 'Dissertation on the Fall of Man').
Posthumous was:
- 'Sermons,' &c., 1748, 8vo, 4 vols. (ed. by George Benson, D.D. [q. v.], from imperfect notes).
[Funeral Sermon by Lardner,1744; Protestant Dissenters' Mag. 1795, p. 1 sq. (Sketch by I. T., i.e. Joshua Toulmin), 1799, p. 432; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 98, 124, ii. 262 sq.; Kippis's Life of Lardner, 1815, p. v; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, 1822, i. p. xxvi; Townsend's Life of Barrington, 1828, p. xix; Armstrong's App. to Martineau's Ordination Service, 1829, p. 97; London Directory of 1677, 1858; Cat. of Edinburgh Graduates, 1858, p. 240; James's Hist. Litigation Engl. Presb. Churches, 1867, pp. 700, 721, 821; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norf. and Suff., 1877, pp. 304 sq.; Jeremy's Presbyterian Fund, 1885, p. 131.]
HUNT, Sir JOHN (1550?–1615), politician, was second son of John Hunt, esq., of Lyndon in Rutlandshire, and of the ancient family of the Le Hunts (Wright, Rutland, pp. 82-3). His mother was Amy, daughter of Sir Thomas Cave of Stanford, Northamptonshire. He was born at Morcott in Rutlandshire, whence he was sent to Eton, and afterwards to King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a scholar 27 Aug. 1565, but left the university without taking a degree. In the parliament which met 2 April 1571 he took his seat as member for Sudbury. He settled during the latter part of his life at Newton in Leicestershire. Although a man of some ability and attainments, he appears to have led a somewhat profligate life, and in July 1611 the Countess of Oxford caused articles to be drawn up against him on account of the evil influence that he exercised over her son, Henry de Vere, eighteenth earl, a youth of eighteen, the companion of Prince Henry. She entreated the interference of the Earls of Salisbury and Northampton. The charge does not seem to have lost him the royal favour, for in the same year (10 Nov.) he was knighted at Whitehall by James. A nephew, William Le Hunt of Gray's Inn, was called to the degree of Serjeant of law in Trinity term 1688. Sir John was author of:
- Latin epigrams in collection presented by the scholars of Eton to Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, 1563.
- Latin verses in commendation of Anne, countess of Oxford, 1588, Lansdowne MS. civ. art. 78.
[State Papers, James I, vol. lxv. No. 49; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 349; Nichols's Progresses, James I, ii. 432; Wright's Rutland, pp. 82-3.]
HUNT, JOHN (1806–1842), organist and composer, born on 30 Dec. 1806 at Marnhull in Dorsetshire, entered the choir of Salisbury
