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Note: N4913 See:
Reminiscences of a Quinquagenarian, (by James Hunter, rector of Banff Academy]
N P 1867, Octavo. pp36. [A Jervise] reprinted from the Dumfries and Galloway Courier.
(It is referred to in the bibliography of A History of Dumfries and Galloway By Sir Herbert Maxwell.)
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Obituary in the Banffshire Journal 31 July 1894, according to Walt Whitman Review, 1979.
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Parish Schoolmaster, Bothwell.
Session Clerk, Bothwell.
Rector of Banff Academy 1857-.
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1851 census confirms he was born “Dumfries; Morton”
1861 census says he was 41 ie born abt 1820.
1880 US census Providence, Fairfax Co., Virginia, gives him born abt 1820.
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The town of Providence was renamed Fairfax in 1805.
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Gravestone at Lewinsville Presbyterian Cemetery, McLean, Fairfax County, Virginia:
JAMES HUNTER. / BORN JUNE 19, 1818. / IN DUMFRIESSHIRE SCOTLAND / DIED JULY 19, 1894 / AT BOTHWELL FARM FAIRVAX / CO. VA. / GRACE CRAIG / WIFE OF / JAMES HUNTER / BORN JAN. 23, 1829 / IN LANARKSHIRES SCOTLAND / DIED MAY 6, 1914 / IN WASHINGTON, D. C.
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Editor of:
Supplement to Worcester’s Dictionary.
Complete Works of Burns, pub by Gebbie (regarded as the best edition of Burn’s works).
Chief assistant and collaborator in the translation of the great German World History of Flaathe.
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From "Annals of Banff", Crammond:
Minutes of town council p.371
1. 1857 James Hunter appointed register of births, deaths and marriages-succeeded in 1860.
2. 1857 pg. 202 Vol ii: Mr. David Paton rector having resigned Mr. James Hunter, parish schoolmaster Bothwell, is appointed on recommendation of Dr. H.M. Inspector of Schools. Salary 75 pounds and apparently so until 1866.
3. 1861 pg 128 Mr. Hunter (James) craves to be examined by the Presbytery as Rector of the Academy, Banff. The letter to lie on the table.
4. pg.145 Aug 6 Mr James Hunter resigns being an acting elder of this Kirk session and is appointed Session Clerk.
5. 1863 Oct.18 Mr. James Hunter, rector, formerly member of the Kirk Session of Bothwell admitted as elder.
6. 1875 Sept 14 .... Of books received from Mr. Hunter, late Session Clerk on the 7th Sept.
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In January 1873 he was still in Banff, when he wrote to Furnivall with the verses of a song “The Laird of Dalziel's Leman":
“The only unpublished ballad I know of is one connected with the parish of Dalziel, near Hamilton. I fear, however, it is irretrievably lost. It consisted of a dialogue between a father and a daughter who had become "leman" to Hamilton Laird of Dalziel, and consists of pathetic remonstrances and lamentations on the part of the old man and of palliations and explanations on the part of the woman. In one passage she gets a little smutty. I used to hear it sung some twenty odd years ago by a publican in Hamilton — a native of Dalziel, but whose name I forget — who was famous only for this ballad and his ability so to twist up his leg that he could drink a glass of whiskey placed on the sole of his boot. A very few fragments are all I can recall. It opened with the old man exclaiming
"Dool and wae's me, Jenny!
Dool and wae's me, Jenny!
That e'er I lived to see that ye
Dalziel's leman should be, Jenny."
The smutty verse is the next I recollect:
"It was at the clatty slap, faither
Dalziel set his foot on my gown tail
And I fell on my back faither."
Another verse ran -
"My daughter's a beauty bright, faither
My daughter's a beauty bright, faither
And a the lairds in Edinburgh toun
In her take great delight, faither."
In the next verse she explains with much pathos how although all crowd to dance with her daughter none deign to glance on herself, the mother. Of a son she says -
"My son stands by my knee, faither
My son stands by my knee, faither
And if he lives to be a man
A merchantman he'll be faither.["]
In another verse [she] reminds her father of Dalziel's kindness to himself.
"Dalziel's been kind to thee, faither
Dalziels been kind to thee, faither ["]
and the next two lines explain how when all the other tenants were treated with rigour Dalziel asked him for neither rent nor fee. Some years ago when I remembered more of it I patched together some half-score verses or more and sent them to Dean Christie, Fochabers, who yet may have them. It was sung to the tune of “Huntingtower".
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I [Lynne Gant] have the theory that [all] the Hunters of Northern Virginia are related. My husband's line starts in Dumfriesshire, Scotland:
James Hunter m. Elizabeth Wallace and had these children:
Margaret, bap. March 1816
James, b. June 19, 1818, d. July 19, 1894, Bothwell Farm, Vienna, Va.
John Hunter, bap. July 1821
James (1818-1894) m. Grace Hamilton Craig and had these children:
Lilias Ann Kennedy Hunter (Cameron), b. 1850
James Craig Hunter, b. 1852, remained in Lanarkshire, Scot.
Eliza Wallace Hunter (Campbell), b.1854, resided in Shetland, Scot.
John Craig Hunter, b. 1856, lived with wife Lucy S. Terrett Hunter in Vienna, Va.
Susan Hunter, b. 1864, m. Albert Rhett Walker
Agnes Wallace Hunter, b. 1866, m. Stuart Thornton Terrett, resided in Falls Church
Grace Craig Hunter, b. 1868, m. Henry Clifford Cheston
I have info on descendants on most of these people. James Hunter (1818-1894) was a well know translator and editor. A 1936 article from "The Scottish Educational Journal" states that two of James' sons inherited a farm in Vienna, Va. from an uncle. James and several daughters joined them there.
The farm was Moorefield, owned by Jeremiah Moore. The Hunters renamed it Bothwell. I have to check my files, but I believe it had some connection to the Hunters of Ayr Hill. One of the sons of John Hunter (1746-1815) [who called Vienna “Ayr Hill” before it changed name] and Jane Broadwater was George Washington Hunter. He married the daughter of Jeremiah Moore, the owner of Moorefield and later Bothwell.
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In 1790, Jeremiah Moore built “Moorefield” very near the present site of the Vienna Metro station. He lived there until his death in 1815 and rather unusual for that time, he willed the house to his wife whom he considered his equal partner in all of his business affairs.
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Moorefield, Vienna consisted of 600 acres was divided among Jeremiah Moore's children on the death of his wife, Lydia.
"In October, 1874, the home and some amount of property around the home, (I don't know how much but is a matter of record in the Fairfax county land records) was sold to James Hunter, Jr. of Banff, Scotland, who was sent by his mother, Grace Hunter, to procure a farm in the United States. She and her husband, James, Sr. renamed the property Bothwell for the town in Scotland where they were married. In 1902, the home returned to the Moore family when it was acquired by Frederick Cline and Florence Moore Cline, a great great granddaughter of Jeremiah."
[Why sent to America by his mother?]
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Jeremiah and Thomas Moore sold "Moorefield" to Mr. James Hunter, of Scotland, in 1874. Hunter improved the property, made new additions to the house, replacing old additions, dug a well and mad a new road to the house. He or his heirs sold to FH Cline, who married Florence Moore, a descendant of Jeremiah Moore.
(Drawing of Moorefield in 1932.)
(The William and Mary Quarterly. 1932. p 24.)
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There was a stop on the Fairfax trolley line called Bothwell (in 1915?)?
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Any connection to these people:
In a letter of 1748 George says that William Hunter in Fredericksburg is "within 20 miles", adding that "Willie Hunter is a brother of James Hunter in Duns".
(Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine v.21-22 (1939-41) pp73/4
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NOT this man: GRAVE OF JAMES HUNTER (1721-1784) James Hunter came to Virginia, 1746, from Scotland and soon was a leading merchant at Falmouth where he later established ...
(Colonial Fredericksburg and Neighborhood in Perspective by Oscar H. Darter. 1957. Page 231.)
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“It was near Isla Bridge in the Summer of 1867 that James Hunter, late Rector of Banff Academy, came upon another stone in which he found something like a Bird in the upper, and a spectacle ornament in the lower half of the Slab. [More...]
(The Book of the Chronicles of Keith, Grange, Ruthven, Cairney, and ... By Gordon, James Frederick Skinner. 1880. page 421.)
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“...Hunter, James, b. near Dumfries, Scotland, formerly rector of Banff Academy, now resident at Vienna, Va. ...”
(A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American ... by Samuel Austin Allibone - 1891 Page 875)
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In 1861 census his children Lilias, Eliza, John and Jemima were all at home, but James was not. -
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However a James Hunter age 5 was at the house of a John Craig in Bothwell. James was said to be age 5 (he should be 8 to fit our James - easy typo to make) and was said to be John Craig’s stepson, whereas he would be his grandson. There could be some confusion because if the John Craig is right, it seems he remarried to a Christina ___, and James would be her stepson’s son.
But that John Craig was a “farmer of 3 acres and sawyer”. Surely not our man?
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His passage to America does not seem to appear in the records on the http://www.castlegarden.org website (”the best collection of US ship passenger lists database searches.“)
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I knew Walt Whitman, although my knowledge of him was only that of a shy and wondering, albeit a worshiping, child, for I had come from North of the Tweed, where from earliest childhood we had been taught to worship our intellectuals — our Burns, our Scott and our Carlyle — as we worshipped none other of our idols.
Footnote: James Hunter (1818-1894) left his calling card with Walt Whitman some time in April or May 1887, as the poet pasted it without comment in his Daybook.
(“’I Knew Walt Whitman’ by Susan Hunter Walker (1864-1933 [sic])”, James Hunter’s daughter, first published in Walt Whitman review: Volume 27. 1980.)
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In the poet Walt Whitman’s daybook was a calling card with the following written in pencil (not in WW’s hand):
James Hunter,
Vienna, Fairfax Co.,
Va
Bothwellaugh [sic]
(Daybooks and Notebooks of Walt Whitman. NYU Press 2007. Page 417.)
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I have found the matriculation record for a James Hunter from Dumfries during the period you are interested in. His matriculation record in 1835 says:
Jacobus Hunter, filius natu maximus Jacobi, artcifis apud Thornhill in com. De Dunfries. Student of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow 1837-38.
(Source: WI Addison, The Matriculation Albums of the University of Glasgow from 1728 to 1858.)
This person studied here but did not graduate. There is no recorded reason for this but during this period the most likely reasons were:
- letters of recommendation from his professors were enough so he did not need to go to the added expense of graduating. The graduation certificate was not as important at that time as it is today.
- that he came from a religious background which meant he preferred not to take a graduation oath that referred to the Church of Scotland
- he took some classes here but graduated from another University or College
- that he was unable to pass the required examinations
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JAMES HUNTER, a native of Thornhill, in the parish of Morton, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, died July 19, 1894, at his home, Bothwell Farm, in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was born June 19, 1818, and was educated at the parish schools and Glasgow University. In 1847 Mr. Hunter was appointed parochial schoolmaster of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, a position he tilled with satisfaction and honor until 1858, when he resigned to accept the Rectorship of Banff Academy, of Banffshire, Scotland. During his his residence in Scotland he undertook, at the request of Messrs. Blackie, publishers, Glasgow, the editorship of the second edition of their Imperial Dictionary, and, when he left Banff in April, 1873, he proceeded to Glasgow, and was for several years engaged with the Messrs. Blackie in superintending the progress of the Dictionary and other works. Before the completion of the . Dictionary he lelt Glasgow for America, and since 1877 has lived at various times in New York, Philadelphia, and Virginia. In this country he compiled, translated and did editorial work for the publishers. Amongst other literary efforts he edited the Supplement to Worcester's Dictionary for the Lippincotts and the six volume American edition of Burns, published by the late George Gebbie, Philadelphia, in 1886. Mr. Hunter was a man of excellent natural gifts. He had a. powerful intellect, and was distinguished by remarkable physical vitality, as well as by great mental activity. He had a strong love for literature, and succeeded in imbuing his scholars with his own tastes. He was throughout life not only a teacher but a student. While resident in Banff, he spent several of his vacations on the continent for the purpose of acquiring and perfecting himself in the languages, an acquirement which he turned to good practical account, even in his closing days One of the last ...
(Book News, Volume 13. 1895.)
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