Thomas Hunt

son of Hen. Hunt, was born in the City of Worcester, an. 1611, became a Student in Pembr. Coll. 1628, Master of Arts in 1636, but whether ever Bach. of that faculty it appears not; and therefore Hen. instead of Tho. Hunt in the Fasti 1630, among the Bachelaurs, is to be taken away. Afterwards he went into the Country and taught a private School, then to London and taught in the Church of S. Dunstan in the East, and at length being preferred to the Mastership of the Free-school of S. Saviours in Southwark, did much good among the Youth there, as elsewhere he had done, by his admirable way (accompanied with much industry) in teaching. For the use of whom he wrot,

Libellus Orthographicus: or, the diligent School-boys Directory, &c. Lond. 1661, and several times after in oct. One Edit. of which bears this title—Libel. Orthograph: Or the diligent School-boys Directory, very useful for Grammar scholars, Apprentices, &c. or any that desire to be exactly perfect (especially) in the English Orthography.

Abecedarium Scholasticum: or the Grammar Scholars Abecedary. Lond. 1671. oct. or thus in the title of another edition.—Abecedarium Scholasticum: Or the Grammar Scholars Flower-garden, wherein are these following flowers; to wit Proverbs, proverbial Sayings, Sayings also on several subjects. What other things he hath written, I know not, nor any thing else of him, only that he died 23 January, 1682/3. in sixteen hundred eighty and two, and was buried in the Church of S. Saviour in Southwark, close to the wall in the corner, on the left hand of that door that leads from the Bull Churchyard or Bull-head Churchyard into the said Church. The Reader may be pleased now to know, that besides this, hath been another, Thom. Hunt, who, tho no Oxford man by education, yet having been famous in his generation among certain schismatical persons for several things that he hath written and published, I shall therefore give you these brief memoirs of him, viz. That he was born in London, in the Augustine Friers, as I conceive, near the Old Exchange, was first Scholar, then Fellow, and Master of Arts of Queens Coll. in Cambridge, where he was esteemed a person of quick parts, and of a ready fluence in discourse, but withall too pert and forward. Thence he went to Greys Inn, where before he had been entred a Student, and making proficiency in the municipal Laws, was made Barrister, was had in repute for his practice, and acknowledged by most persons to be a good Lawyer. In 1659 he became Clerk of the Assizes of Oxford Circuit, but ejected from that office at his Majesties restauration (to his great loss) to make room for the true owner. Afterwards he lived and followed his profession at Banbury in Oxfordshire, was Steward for a time to part of the Duke of Buckinghams Estate, and afterwards to the Duke of Norfolk, &c. He hath written and published, (1) Great and weighty considerations relating to the Duke of York, or Successor to the Crown, &c. considered. And an answer to a Letter, &c. Lond. 1680. in 9 sh. in fol. (2) An Argument for the Bishops right in judging in capital Causes in Parliament, &c. To which is added A postscript for rectifying some mistakes in some of the inferior Clergy, mischievous to our Government and Religion. Lond. 1682. oct. For the writing of which Argument, &c. he expected no less than to be made Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland: But falling short of that honorable office, which [•] e too ambitiously catch’d at, and considering the loss of another place which he unjustly possessed, he soon after appeared one of the worst, and most inveterate enemies, both to Church and State, that was in his time, and the most malicious, and withall the most ignorant Scribler of the whole herd, and thereupon stiled by a noted ((f))((f)) Joh. Dryden in The vindication or parallel of the French holy League and Covenant, &c. against Mr. Tho. Hunt’s Defence of the Charter, and the Authors of the Reflections—Lond. 1683. quart. pag. 39. author, Magni nominis umbra. The said Postscript was reprinted the same year, with a large and most scandalous Preface to it, containing very groundless and abusive reflections on the Universities, and the rankest raillery imaginable on the whole body of the Clergy; and thereunto were annexed Great and weighty considerations, &c. before mentioned. But the said Postscript being wrot with a plain design to overthrow what he had maintained in the body of his book, occasioned (besides what Rog. L’Estrange said against it in some of his Observators, which came out soon after its publication) Edw. Pelling Rector of S. Mart. Church within Ludgate. Lond. (the supposed author of Protestant Apostate, &c. Lond. 1682. qu.) to point out from p. 21. to 35, the true original, (viz. Persons book of Succession put out under the name of N. Doleman) from whence he transcribed many of his most pernicious and destructive Principles, as well in the Great and weighty Considerations, &c. considered, as in the Postscript. Soon after one Wa. Williams of the Middle Temple Barrester did put out an Answer to the said Postscript intit. An answer to sundry matters contained in Mr. Hunts Postscript, to his Argument for the Bishops Right in judging capital Causes in Parliament, viz. 1. As to his publishing a scandalous letter to the Clergy, &c. Lond. 1683. in 4 sh. in qu. Dr. G. Hicks also in the preface to Jovian, or an Answer to Julian the Apostate, as also in the first edit. of the book it self p. 237, and elsewhere in the same work, doth plainly insinuate that this factious and rebellious author contributed no considerable assistance towards the composing of Julian the Apostate, being a short account of his life, &c. written by Sam. Johnson: And Mr. Tho. Long of Exeter, in the Epist. to the Reader before his Vindication ((g))((g)) Printed at Lond. 1683. of the Primitive Christians, &c. points at several foul passages in the said Julian, clearly to be seen in Mr. Hunts Postscript; and in the very entrance of the Appendix to the Vindication, and in other places, doth positively affirm, that both Hunt and Johnson have borrowed great part of their respective Libels from Joh. Miltons villanous defence of the Murther of K. Ch. 1. Mr. Hunt hath also written (3) A defence of the Charter and municipal Rights of London. Lond. 1683. qu. For the publishing of which he was ordered to be taken into custody: whereupon he fled into Holland in June, or thereabouts, an. 1683, aged about 56 years. See more in the first Vol. of this work, p. 308. The said Defence was answer’d by Anon. by way of Letter to a friend in a treatise intit. The Lawyer outlaw’d: or, a brief answer to Mr. Hunts defence of the Charter, &c. Lond. 1683. in 5 sh. in qu. It is also taken for granted by one ((h))((h)) Joh. Dryden before quoted in his Vind. of the Parallell, p. 40., who may reasonably be supposed to have fully known the truth of what he asserts in this matter, that tho Tho. Shadwell the Poet (bred in Cambridge) be author of the rough draught of the following libel, yet the finishing of it was done by Tho. Hunt: which piece is thus intit. Some reflections on the pretended parallel in the Play called, The Duke of Guise; in a letter to a friend. Lond. 1683. in 4 sheets in quar.