Author: Hunter, John
Biography:
HUNTER, John (d 1812)
“John Hunter, Esq.” gives away very little about his personal life in his two literary works, the collection of poems published in three editions under varying titles between 1798 and 1805, and his translation of Cecco’s Complaint from the Italian of Baldovini (1800), but for all of them his publisher was the well established firm of Cadell and Davies, production was handsome, and reviews were respectful. Internal evidence indicates that he had a gentleman’s classical education and that he read French and Italian as well as classical languages. One poem refers to a brother, Robert, who gave him a copy of Milton; another mentions a period of quarantine spent in the Swiss fortress of the Red Tower (Tour Rouge) on a return trip from Turkey. There is no record of his having attended Oxford or Cambridge. In Feb. 1805 he sold off some of his books at auction, mainly literary classics in Latin, English, French, and Italian. The advertisements refer to him as resident at Kew—which makes it possible to identify him confidently as the well-to-do gentleman who in 1796 if not earlier was the occupant of the grand house still called Hunter House that is part of the present-day Herbarium and Library at Kew Gardens. It might have been in 1805 that he moved to an address on Clarges St. in London. He died on 2 Jun. 1812 at Sidmouth, Devon, where he had perhaps gone for sea air, after a “lingering illness” of six months, and was buried there on 7 Jun. It is not known whether he had a wife and children. (findmypast.com 5 Jan. 2022; ancestry.com 5 Jan. 2022; “Grade II* Listed Buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,” Wikipedia 5 Jan. 2022; Morning Post 1 Feb. 1805; MC 5 Jun. 1812)