John Hunt (1740-1824) was a prominent Quaker minister and journalist from Moorestown Township, New Jersey. He kept a diary, most of which has been preserved, from 1770 to 1824. The diary relates Hunt's personal activities, concerns and beliefs. It is also a concise source of primary evidence that documents local people and events.[1]
John Hunt, the son of Robert Hunt (1709-1764) and Abigail Wood (died 1747), was born August 5, 1740 at the small, rural community of Mount Pleasant.[2] Mount Pleasant is located in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey about two miles east of the town of Columbus. His father was a first cousin to John Woolman, the renowned Quaker minister.[3] The family moved to a farm at Colestown, a small community located a few miles south of Moorestown.[4] Here, Abigail Hunt died February 22, 1747. Robert Hunt and the former Martha Bates (C. 1725-1770), widow of George Ward, were married in May, 1749.[5] Robert Hunt's seven children, from both marriages, lived together on the farm at Colestown.
John Hunt and Esther Warrington were married March 17, 1763 in the Friends Meetinghouse at Moorestown. They had ten children, three of whom died young. Hunt was a Quaker minister for more than 50 years.[6]
John Hunt died September 21, 1824 and was buried in the Moorestown Friends burial ground.[7]
His memorial, published in 1842, highlighted his public testimony concerning pride and superfluity, and stated that he was particularly concerned with temperance.
^ John Hunt's grandfather, Robert Hunt ( -1716), and Elizabeth Woolman (1685-1755), widow of Nathaniel Paine, were married June 7, 1708. Her brother, Samuel Woolman, is the father of John Woolman, the minister. (Hynes, p. 2-7, 10-13)
^Letterbooks of Asa Matlack, Pg. 561: "John Hunt, Born in 1740 says ... [Robert Hunt] learned the trade of shoemaker in Burlington then came to a small village called Colestown in Chester Township. The country was then much like a wilderness I heard him say, and that so as he came along through the woods he sat down on the road and wept."
Gummere, Amelia Mott (1922), The journal and essays of John Woolman, New York: The Macmillan Company
Hunt Family Papers, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Hunt, John (1770-1824), John Hunt's journal, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399
Hynes, Judy, et al. (1997), The descendants of John and Elizabeth (Woolman) Borton, Mount Holly, New Jersey: John Woolman Memorial Association
Memorials concerning deceased Friends (1842), Philadelphia: S. B. Chapman & Co., p. 12-16
Lamborn, Suzanne Parry (2006), John and Sarah Roberts, with many related families, Morgantown, Pennsylvania: Masthof Press, ISBN 1-932864-58-X
Matlack, Asa. Letterbooks of Asa Matlack, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Woodward, E. M. (1883), History of Burlington County, New Jersey, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, p. 270-271
