Jonathan Hunt (Vermont lieutenant Governor)

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For the U.S. representative from Vermont, see Jonathan Hunt (Vermont Representative)

Jonathan Hunt (1738-1808) was born in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1738, the son of Capt. Samuel Strong Hunt of Northampton and Ann Ellsworth of Windsor, Ct., and the great-great-grandson of Jonathan Hunt and his wife Mary Webster, daughter of John Webster (Governor of the Colony of Connecticut).^[1] Hunt was an early pioneer of Vermont, where he was granted extensive tracts of land in grants from New Hampshire Gov. Benning Wentworth, as well as by patent from New York State and by purchase.^[2] Jonathan Hunt's father, Capt. Samuel, had himself been the proprietor named in the charter of many New Hampshire towns. His son Jonathan was the last Lieutenant Governor of the independent republic of Vermont, 1794-1796 and presidential elector for Vermont, 1800.^[3]

Hunt is considered one of the founders of the state of Vermont as well as one of its early pioneers and largest landowners. He lived in Vernon, Vermont, the name suggested by his wife Lavinia (Swan) Hunt, a Massachusetts native and former pupil of President John Adams. (Lavinia Swan Hunt's brother Benjamin served as Vermont's State Treasurer for many years.) When Hunt was instructed by the Vermont General Assembly to change name of the town he represented from Hinsdale to Huntstown in his honor, he demurred. He asked his wife, who suggested Vernon instead, making it the only Vermont town said to be named by a woman.^[4]^[5] The Governor Hunt house, built by Hunt in 1789, and once featured in Herbert W. Congdon's "Old Vermont Houses," is now on the grounds of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant. Hunt's son, also named Jonathan, served as a U.S. Congressman from Vermont.(See Jonathan Hunt (Vermont Representative).^[6]

Jonathan Hunt's brother Gen. Arad Hunt, who also lived in Vernon, was general of the Vermont militia, a member of the Westminster Convention of 1777, and a prominent early backer of Middlebury College, to which he donated 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land in Albany, Vermont.^[7] Along with his brother, he was one of the largest speculators in Vermont lands, owning tens of thousands of acres across the state.^[8] Jonathan Hunt's daughter Ellen was married to Lewis R. Morris, U.S. Congressman from Vermont and nephew of statesman Gouverneur Morris. ^[9]