ANDREW HUNTER: of County Londonberry, Ireland, was born in 1640, and it was the family tradition that his birthplace was the ancestral home of the Hunters of Hunterston in Scot land. His son, Hugh, married Isabella Semple, and their son, David Hunter, lived in York County, Pennsylvania. He married Martha McIlhenny in 1745. He was a Captain of a York County Company in the French and Indian War, and a member of the expedition against Fort Duquesne. Capt. Hunter mysteriously disappeared in the summer of 1776, and his family never saw or heard from him again. His fate was not known until nearly a century afterward, when on the destruction of an old house in a valley of Virginia by Union Soldiers, a paper was discovered concerning him. It was given to his great-grandson, Captain David Hunter Strother, and was found to be a writ of habeas corpus, issued in the name of “George III Rex,” by authority of the Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, directing the sheriff of Berkeley County to bring the body of David Hunter to the capitol at Williamsburg. Captain Hunter was a patriot, and Lord Dunmore, last of the English Governors of Virginia, was notorious for his cruelties and injustice to the colonists. Captain David Hunter bore the arms of the family of Calderwood, Scotland, “Vert, three dogs of the chase courant argent collared or; on a chief of the second as many hunting horns of the first, stringed gules. Crest: A greyhound sejant argent collared or. Motto: Cursum perficio.” The descendants of this line of the family are distinguished in the annals of Virginia, and allied with the Washington, Dandbridge Spotswood, and many other historic families.
Among early immigrants to New England were four of the name, as shown by the following ship record: “These under written names are to be transported to N. England imbarqued in the Blessing from the Ministers and Justices of their conformitie in Religion and that they are no subsedymen.
Christian Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Eliz. Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Tho. Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Wm. Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.”
On September 28th, 1776 David Hunter Senior and Peter Light Senior appeared personally before the Council of the State of Virginia at Williamsburg to enter into a contract to manufacture muskets (McIlwaine, Journal of the Council of the State of Virginia, Volume I, Richmond, 1931, p 177). These documents refer to Peter Light Senior and David Hunter Senior Esq. (12-76?) considering Peter Light Junior [Jacob-1, Peter-2] was barely 18 and David Hunter Junior was only 15 years old.
This accounts for his absence during part of the summer of 1776, but did he die on the return trip?
On April 20, 1775, Virginia Colonial Governor Lord Dunmore had ordered the removal of all locks from firearms from the Williamsburg Armory and all the gunpowder to be stored on a British Warship. The strong reaction from the colonist forced him to abandon his post at Williamsburg permanently and ultimately he returned to England in 1776. It appears that the colonials in Williamsburg were attempting to replenish their armory.
transcribed here:
H.R. McIlwaine, Journal of the Council of the State of Virginia, Volume I, Richmond, 1931, page 297
David Hunter and Peter Light, of the County of Berkley, appear in Council and Contract with the Board, to furnish, for the use of this State, two hundred Stand of arms to consist each of a Good Musket three feet eight Inches in the Barrel, three quarters of an Inch bore, Steel rammers, the upper thimble trumpetmouthed, the lower thimble with a spring to retain the ramrod, bridle Lock, brassmounting, a Bayonet eighteen inches blade with Scabbard, one pair bullet moulds, to mould sixteen Bullets, to every forty Guns; a priming wire & brush to each musket; the Stand, compleat, well fixed & properly proved to be delivered at Williamsburg, and approved of by any two officers of the army who may be appointed to examine and report their opinion of the same on, or before the first day of December next ensuing at the price of Six pounds Virginia Currency the said Hunter is also to furnish two hundred Cartouch boxes of a proper size & at the usual price. A Bond was entered into with good Security for the due performance of the above Contract and ordered to be filed. And the said David Hunter received a Warrant for one hundred pounds upon account and in part for the two hundred Stand of arms which he has engaged to make for the use of the public.