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Note: here from Kingston, NH, in 1772-3 with some of his family, including his son Joshua who was the only one to settle with his father in Ryegate after the Rev. War--most of the others settled across the CT River at Bath and Lyman, NH. Daniel Hunt's cousin, Zebedee Hunt of Rye, NH, was one of 93 associates of Richard Jenness in the NH Charter of 8 Sept 1763 to 'Reigate'. None of the charter proprietors ever settled in Ryegate and their rights were sold in 1767 to John Church of Charlestown, NH, who was instrumental in selling much of the town to the Rev. John Witherspoon of Princeton, NJ, who sold the southern half of the town to a group in Scotland called the Scots American Company of Farmers who in 1773 started a mass emigration from Scotland to Ryegate. When the agents of the Company visited Ryegate on 28 June 1773, they stayed overnight with Aaron Hosmer, thought to be the first settler in Ryegate until it was found that Daniel Hunt was also living there at the time. A petition dated 26 Jan. 1773 to the New York Assembly carries among the names of 'men from Newbury' Aaron Hosmer and two Daniel Hunts, the latter being the subject Daniel and his son of the same name.
The Miller and Wells History of Ryegate states that Daniel Hunt...'was first at Newbury in 1772 but returned to Kingston and served in the Rev. War, was at the Battle of Bunker Hill, came to Ryegate about 1779 with some of his family...'. On the other hand, Hamilton Child's 1887-8 Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties cites 'evidence once given in Danville Court that Daniel with part of his family came to Ryegate in the Spring of 1773 and continued there.'
There was probably movement back and forth between the old homestead at Kingston, NH, and the frontier in the 'Coos Country' towns along the big bend of the CT River in Vermont and New Hampshire. Son Daniel m. Silena Whittlesey at Haverhill, NH, 21 April 1774 and lived most of the rest of a long life on the banks of the Ammonoosuc River at the boundary of Bath and Haverhill. Daniel, Senior, and three of his sons are said to have fought at Bunker Hill in June of 1775, but this has not been verified and is questionable. Son Zebulon appears on a roster of Captain Samuel Young's Company in Timothy Bedel's Regt. in a Canadian Expedition in 1776, engaged on 8 March 1776 (at which time he would have been only 16 years old), and on a roster of men at Isle Aux Noix (in the Richelieu River, just above the present boundary of Vermont at Lake Champlain) on 24 June 1776. Zebulon later appears along with his brothers Daniel and Joshua in Captain Timothy Barron's Company in a regiment raised for the Defense of the Frontier in 1778-9, at which time they were listed as residents of Bath, NH. Daniel's son Moses records the longest continuous Rev. War service, enlisting at Epping, NH, in March of 1777 in the corps of Rangers commanded by Major Benjamin Whitcomb, in the line of the State of New Hampshire in the Continental establishment, where he served until the end of the War in New England, having seen action against Burgoyne at Saratoga. He returned from the War to the Coos Country Towns and settled with his wife Ruth Dodge at the foot of Hunt Mountain (named for him) in the portion of Lyman, NH, which became Monroe.
Daniel Hunt died in 1807 and was buried in the Old Scotch Cemetery at Ryegate (long- abandoned) with his wife Mary Trussell who died in 1795. He is said to have been the only Rev. War soldier buried there, but his service has not been verified and his son Joshua (whose Rev. War service is verified) succeeded his father on the Ryegate farm and died in 1815 and was possibly also buried in the Old Scotch Cemetery--the dates and place of burial of Joshua and his wife Elizabeth Whittlesey have not been discovered. There were few identifiable gravestones found in the Old Scotch Cemetery when it was closed and the few that were recognizable were moved to the 'new' cemetery at Ryegate Corners.
Most of the Hunts who settled in Caledonia and Orleans Counties in the early part of the 19th century were descendants of Daniel Hunt whose children spread around Ryegate, Barnet, Bradford, Danville, Peacham, in Vermont, and Bath, Haverhill, Lisbon, Lyman, in New Hampshire and descendants followed the Bayley-Hazen Military Road (which some of the children probably patrolled during the Rev. War) to the Canadian Border in Orleans County where they were among the early settlers of Jay, Lowell, and Troy, VT.
A detailed genealogy of Daniel Hunt can be found in Mitchell J. Hunt, The Ancestors and Descendants of Daniel Hunt (1723-1807) Pioneer Settler of Ryegate, VT, 1772-3, (July 1976, Rev. 1985), copies filed with GSV, VT Historical Society, NEHGS at Boston, Antiquarian Society at Worcester, CT State Library, Library of Congress, and a few other places. An abbreviated summary is provided below.
Genealogy of Daniel Hunt of Ryegate
Daniel-3 Hunt was b. at Amesbury, MA, 12 April 1723, son of Samuel-2 (Edward-1) and Elizabeth (Clough) Hunt of Amesbury, and grandson of the pioneer Edward and Ann (Weed) Hunt of Amesbury, start of the so-called Amesbury Line of Hunts. Edward of Amesbury was prob. the son of the Edward Hunt of Duxbury, MA, who was constable there in 1656, sold land in Duxbury in 1665 and disappears from Duxbury records. Edward Hunt of Duxbury was son of the pioneer Edmund Hunt of Duxbury, the first known Hunt in the New England Colonies, appearing first at Cambridge, MA, in 1634-5 and removed in 1636-7 to Duxbury where he died about 1656. The old 'Edmond' Hunt House in Duxbury, built in September 1641, remains standing and in use as a summer home in Duxbury, one of the oldest houses still in existence in America. The circumstantial evidence is strong that Edward Hunt of Amesbury was a grandson of Edmund Hunt of Duxbury, but conclusive proof can probably never be found because early fires destroyed the town records of both Duxbury and Amesbury.
Daniel Hunt m. at Hampstead, NH, in 1743, Mary Trussell, b. 12 Oct. 1721, dau. of Henry and Hannah (Weed) Trussell of Amesbury. Her sister Miriam m. Daniel Hunt's brother Jonathan.
Jonathan and Miriam (Trussell) Hunt had at least 8 children including Abel Hunt, b. 16 April 1750, who has a place among the early settlers of Vermont because in 1772 he purchased from his father land in Hopkinton, NH, m. abt 1772 Elizabeth Cressey and moved to Strafford, VT, where their son Moses was b. 19 Jan. 1774 and a dau. Catherine was b. 8 April 1775. Abel died at Hopkinton in 1777 and his son Moses m. Judith Roberts (1773-1866), purchased land in Tunbridge, VT, 20 June 1795, which he sold in 1796 and removed to Strafford, VT He had children Elizabeth, Abel, Cynthia, Judith, Catherine, Hannah, Eunice, and Moses, b. at Tunbridge and Strafford in the period 1795-1809, subsequently 'moved West' and died at Bridesville, Ohio, in Jan. 1840. (See further on Moses Hunt in Strafford, VT, below.)
Lois Hunt, b. 23 Oct. 1758, another child of Jonathan and Miriam (Trussell) Hunt, m. at Hopkinton, NH, abt 1785, David Annis as his 2d wife. They had 3 children b. at Hopkinton and removed to Chelsea, VT, where the births of the first 8 of his children were recorded (albeit the 1st four were by his 1st wife, Elizabeth Hunt, a cousin of Lois, parents not discovered). Sometime in 1797 David and his family removed to Bath, NH, where three more children were born and David Annis died 18 Aug. 1824. His wife Lois died at Kelsea Moore's in Ryegate, VT, in July 1844. David's first child (by 1st wife Elizabeth Hunt), Webster D. Annis, m. Lucinda Hunt, dau. of Zebulon Hunt of Bath, NH. A son by 2d wife Lois Hunt, Nathaniel Flood Annis, m. Mehitable Hunt, dau. of Joshua Hunt of Ryegate, VT.
Reference to these families is made because they are relevant to some early Hunt settlers of Vermont prior to the 1791 census and the relationship to Daniel Hunt, the pioneer at Ryegate, VT.
Noyes' History of Hampstead, NH, provides information on the marriage and first three children of Daniel and Mary (Trussell) Hunt. Hampstead was formed from portions of Haverhill and Amesbury, MA, when the boundary between MA and NH was established, and the town incorporated in 1748. A petition of 29 July 1746 for establishing the town of Hampstead has the signatures of Jonathan Hunt (brother of Daniel) and Henry Trussell. Births recorded in Book I of Town Records of Hampstead include Samuel, Nehemiah, and Hannah, the first three children of Daniel Hunt. Sometime after the birth of Hannah in July of 1749, the family appears have removed to Kingston, NH, and from there Daniel Hunt and some of his family removed to Newbury and Ryegate, VT, where Daniel Hunt was one of the first two settlers in 1772-3 and appears in the 1791 census (incorrectly identified as Joshua, his son, who is also listed in the census). Wife Mary Trussell died at Ryegate in 1795 and was buried in the Old Scotch Cemetery at Ryegate (per Ryegate History). Daniel was living with his son Joshua in the 1800 census of Ryegate. It was not until 1797 that any effort was made to establish a church in Ryegate. Prior to this, traveling ministers and a church in the adjoining town of Barnet provided religious services. The first Ryegate church was completed and a sale of pews made on January 12, 1801. As recorded in the Ryegate History, Gallery pew No. 18 was sold to Joshua Hunt and No. 28 to Daniel Hunt. According to Ryegate History, Daniel Hunt died in 1807 and was buried in the Old Scotch Cemetery.
Hamilton Childs' 1887-8 Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties identifies some of the early properties of Daniel Hunt, including his last home, then occupied by Major Thomas Nelson, grandson of the pioneer William Nielson of Ryegate, 200 acres in the 'McIndoes Section,' of Ryegate, identified on Road 17, a short spur leading from what is now U.S. Rt. 5 to Ryegate Corners. A brook running from Blue Mountain through Ryegate Corners passes through this property on its way through the old Hunt Farm to the Connecticut River and was identified on maps of the 19th century as Hunt Brook.
The Hunt tenure in Ryegate did not last long after the death of Daniel. His son Joshua succeeded him on the family farm, but Joshua died only eight years later at the relatively young age of about 56, leaving a widow and nine children, three around age 21 and the other six boys ranging from the age of 3 to 18. The oldest child, daughter Mehitable, m. abt 1811 Nathaniel Annis, lived with him awhile in Ryegate, and then moved a few miles to McIndoe Falls where they both died and are buried. The five (possibly six) oldest sons were all married by 1823 when the mother died, leaving three unmarried sons between the ages of 11 and 19. What became of the younger boys until they were 'of age' is not known, probably cared for by older siblings. In any event, soon after the death of the mother all of the children had departed from Ryegate, although Joshua's son Worcester and his descendants appeared to be in close contact for several generations while living in McIndoe Falls in the neighboring town of Barnet. Several of the children of the pioneer Daniel Hunt of Ryegate were among the early settlers of Bath and Lyman, across the River (CT) from Ryegate, and most of the children of Joshua also appear there before starting a migration into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and elsewhere.
Note: . Daniel Hunt was one of the first two settlers of Ryegate, VT, moving t
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