Hunt

bition in the V. S. (1926); School Physiology
May and June 1906; N. F. Tribune, Apr. 30, 1906.]

M.B.H.

HUNT, NATHAN (Oct.' 26, i;s8-Aug. 8,
1853), Quaker preacher, pioneer in education,
was born in Guilford County, N. C. He was
the son of William Hunt, a distinguished
Quaker preacher who was born in 1733 in Ran-
cocas, N. J. His mother's maiden name was
Sarah Mills. The father died of smallpox while
on a religious mission in England in 1772. Na-
than received a meager school education, but
possessed a mind of strong native capacity and
by means of extensive reading and much medita-
tion and reflection became a leader in his com-
munity and in his religious denomination.

He married Martha Ruckman in 1778 and
settled on the paternal farm which was near
the Revolutionary battlefield of Guilford Court
House. The family suffered serious financial
losses on the occasion of the conflict His first
wife died in 1789 leaving six children, and three
years later he married Prudence Thornburgh, by
which union there were two children. His power
as a preacher developed late in life. Although he
began to speak in public meetings at the age of
twenty-seven, he was not recorded a minister
until he was thirty-five. From that time until
old age weakened him he was an almost constant
traveler and itinerant preacher. A mystic and
seer rather than a reflective and argumentative
preacher, he had sudden "insights" and "saw"
into the state and condition of individuals and
meetings. He acquired a remarkable prestige
and attained a rare influence in Quaker circles,
both at home and abroad. During the years
1820-21 he traveled in England, Ireland, and
Scotland where large audiences, both Quaker
and non-Quaker, came to hear his messages. He
became the intimate and beloved friend of such
distinguished men in England as the great chem-
ist, William Allen, and the famous banker, Sam-
uel Gurney. For some years previous to its open-
ing in 1837 he was chairman of a committee to
found and direct the New Garden Boarding
School, which has since grown into Guilford
College. He secured many contributions to the
funds for this enterprise both in the United States
and abroad. He was a powerful opponent of
slavery in the midst of a slave-holding people.
When the opposition, led by the conservative
John Wilbur, of Westerly, R. L, to the "evan-
gelical" teachings of the English Quaker Joseph
John Gurney, was causing dissension and divi-
sion in various parts of the country, Hunt was
instrumental in preventing a "separation" in
North Carolina. He was a wise leader of public

Hunt

thought and sentiment and a strong religious
guide within his own denomination; few per-
sons have been more beloved by their contem-
poraries. He died at a ripe old age, in August
1853.

[Memoirs of William and Nathan Hunt (1858) ; M.
M. Hobbs, "Nathan Hunt and his Times/' Bull. Friends'
Hist. Soc. of Phila., Nov. 1907; A. G. Way, "Nathan
Hunt, in Quaker Biogs., z sen, vol. I (n.d., 1926);
The Friend (Phila.), Eighth Month 20, 1853; The An-
nual Monitor, 1854, pp. 167-208.] R.M.J.

HUNT, RICHARD MORRIS (Oct. 31,1827-
July 31, 1895), architect, was born in Brattle-
boro, Vt He came from early Colonial stock,
his paternal ancestry going back to Jonathan
Hunt who was born at Winchester, Conn., in
1637. The successive representatives of the fam-
ily were men of substance and each one appears
to have possessed an unusually forceful temper-
ament. Toward the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury a large part of the family estate was situated
in Brattleboro, Vt., and this became the inheri-
tance of two brothers, Jonathan and Arad, both
of them born in Brattleboro, the former in 1787,
the latter in 1790. Jonathan became a member
of Congress and died from cholera in Washing-
ton in 1832. He married Jane Maria Leavitt
who also came from old American stock and
was bora at Suffield, Conn. They had five chil-
dren, Jane, William Morris [q.v.]t John, who
studied medicine, Richard, and Leavitt. From
his father Richard inherited the type of charac-
ter that imposes its will on others. With it, re-
deeming it from harshness or ruthlessness, went
a warrn-hearted and fair-minded perception and
regard for the rights of others. From his mother
came a love of art; and the combination of these
qualities was the foundation of his success.
While his artistic power is unquestioned, It
would not have found fields in which to grow
and expand had not his personal magnetism won
him friends and inspired them with confidence
in his ability.

He and his brothers and sister made an inter-
esting group and a large measure of the ability
shown by all of the children doubtless came from
the brilliant qualities of their mother. Both Mrs.
Hunt and her daughter Jane painted, the former
in oil and on china, in which mediums she ex-
hibited unusual talent This atmosphere of art
was stimulated by the advent within the family
circle of the Italian painter, Gambaddk, a refu-
gee from his native country. He gave lessons
to Mrs. Hunt and Jane, and William probaUj
received much of the impulse of his youth to-
ward painting from this early association
Richard was too yotrag to do much as a painter

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