Individual Details

Edmund Soper Hunt, in his Reminiscences, says that Ephraim Hunt was a knighted cavalier of Prince Rupert's troops and that his real name was Colonel Sir William Hunt. He was a refugee from the disastrous field of Marston Moor, and changed his name to avoid detection. He received his knighthood after the siege of York, in which he distinguished himself. The story of the knighthood and name change seems likely apocryphal. It is mentioned in no other source I've seen, and Soper's book seems frequently fanciful. The following are excerpts from Soper's book: Chapter VIII. Ancestral Gleanings. A chapter on the Hunts may interest my readers, particularly the Hunts of direct descent, as well as those of indirect descent. I have always thought the Hunts pretty good blood, but never dreamed the like of this. To think of it, where so many of our folks have been working so hard, claiming descent from Ephraim Hunt, second, a Colonial Colonel, when his father was a knighted cavalier of Prince Rupert's troops, and his headstone stands intact on Burying Hill, near the Soldiers' Monument, one of the few the vandals have left undisturbed. On it one reads: Here lyeth Buried | ye Body of | Ephraim Hunt | aged about 77 | years deceased | ye 22d of February | 1686-7. "The first person of the name of Hunt in this country was Ephraim Hunt, who settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts. He was a refugee from the disastrous field of Marston Moor, and his right name was Colonel Sir William Hunt; but to conceal his identity, after his arrival in this country, he changed his name to Ephraim. Once an artillery officer and a dashing Tory cavalier, he became a quiet citizen of the new country. He cropped his long hair, and laid aside his fine dress as well as his title. "He was too noted a man to be overlooked, however, and the search for him was continued until the Restoration. He was regarded by the party in power as a 'malignant,' a name given to all Royalists of sufficient note to be considered dangerous by Cromwell. "At the siege of York, Colonel Hunt became the hero of the day, and the dignity of knighthood was conferred upon him by Prince Rupert. But at the battle of Marston Moor the tide turned, and Colonel Hunt fled to America, where he died in 1686, forty years after he left England. "A few months after he settled in the colony of Massachusetts, he married an heiress, Anna Richards. Their three sons were the progenitors of the Hunts in this country, and left records worthy of their gallant father. Every one was a military leader in those dangerous times of Indian and French wars. "When that generation of warfare was passed, we find the same talent for command displayed in another field — in developing the resources of the country and establishing industrial pursuits.

Birth	Abt 1610	Titendon, Buckingham, England
Christen	8 Mar 1611	Lee, Buckingham, England
Death	22 Feb 1687	Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, British America
Burial	24 Feb 1687	Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, British America

Spouse	Anna RICHARDS (1626 - 1671)
Child	Thomas HUNT (1646 - )

Father	Enoch HUNT (1584 - 1653)
Mother	Sarah Elizabeth PALMER (1590 - 1639)
Sibling	John HUNT (1610 - 1661)
Sibling	William HUNT (1611 - 1687)
Sibling	Peter HUNT ( - 1692)