Robert Hunter (colonial administrator)

Robert Hunter
File:Robert Hunter (1666-1734) 1937 321.jpeg Portrait of Hunter, attributed to Godfrey Kneller, c. 1720
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
In office 1707 – Captured at sea by the French; never served
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	Edmund Jenings, President of Council
Succeeded by	Alexander Spotswood
3rd colonial governor of New Jersey
In office June 1710 – 1720
Monarch	Anne George I
Preceded by	Richard Ingoldesby (Lt. Governor)
Succeeded by	Lewis Morris, President of Council
19th colonial governor of New York
In office June 1710 – 1719
Monarch	Anne George I
Preceded by	Richard Ingoldesby (Lt. Governor)
Succeeded by	Pieter Schuyler, Acting Governor
Governor of Jamaica
In office 1728 – March 1734
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	John Ayscough, President of Council
Succeeded by	John Ayscough, President of Council
Personal details
Born	1666 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	Jamaica, West Indies
Occupation	Military officer, governor, playwright
Signature	Robert Hunter (colonial administrator)'s signature

Robert Hunter FRS (c. 1666 – 31 March 1734) was a Scottish military officer, playwright and colonial administrator who successively served as the governors of New York, New Jersey and Jamaica.

Early life

File:Coat of Arms of Robert Hunter.svg

Hunter's coat of arms

Robert Hunter was born c. 1666 in Edinburgh, Scotland, grandson of Robert Hunter, 20th Laird of Hunterston in Ayrshire, being the son of lawyer James Hunter and his wife Margaret Spalding.

Career

He had been apprenticed to an apothecary before running away to join the Scots Army. He became an officer in 1689 who rose to become a general, and married a woman of high rank.

American colonies

He was a man of business whose first address to the New Jersey Assembly was barely 300 words long. In it, he stated, "If honesty is the best policy, plainness must be the best oratory."

He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1707, but was captured by a corsair on his way to Virginia, taken to France, and in 1709 exchanged for the French Bishop of Quebec. He was then appointed Governor of New York and sailed to America with 3,000 Palatine refugees as settlers in 1710. In 1715 he advocated the local minting of copper coins, but the king refused. Governor Hunter's philosophy was that "the true Interests of the People and Government are the same, I mean A Government of Laws. No other deserves the Name, and are never Separated or Separable but in Imagination by Men of Craft."

Hunter was succeeded as Governor by Pieter Schuyler as acting governor from 1719 to 1720 and finally by William Burnet, whose post as Comptroller of Customs was given to Hunter in exchange.

Jamaica

Hunter was then Governor of Jamaica from 1727 until his death on 31 March 1734. While in Jamaica, Hunter waged an unsuccessful war against the Jamaican Maroons. He was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1709.

Personal life

Hunter was married to Elizabeth (née Orby) Hay, the daughter of Sir Thomas Orby, 1st Baronet of Croyland. Elizabeth was the widow of Brig.-Gen. Lord John Hay, son of John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale. Together, they were the parents of at least one son and three daughters (Henrietta Hunter, Catherine (née Hunter) Sloper, Charlotte Hunter), including:

• Thomas Orby Hunter (c. 1716–1769), MP for Winchelsea who married Jacomina Caroline Bullenden, the daughter of Colonel William Bullenden.

Hunter died on 31 March 1734 in Jamaica, West Indies.

Playwriting

His play, Androboros, written in 1714, was the first known play to be written and published in the North American British Colonies.

See also

• List of colonial governors of New Jersey
• List of colonial governors of New York
• Androboros

External links

• Biography of Robert Hunter, New Jersey State Library
• Colonial Governors of New York
• Robert Hunter Papers, 1699-1744 New-York Historical Society

Government offices
Preceded by Edmund Jenings	Governor of the Province of Virginia 1707–1709	Succeeded by 1st Earl of Orkney
Preceded by Richard Ingoldesby	Governor of the Province of New Jersey 1710–1720	Succeeded by William Burnet
Preceded by Gerardus Beekman (acting)	Governor of the Province of New York 1710–1719	Succeeded by Pieter Schuyler (acting)
Preceded by John Ayscough (acting)	Governor of Jamaica 1728–1734	Succeeded by John Ayscough (acting)