ENOCH HUNT 1554-1653

[Ancestral Link: Lura Minnie Parker (Stagge), daughter of Minnie May Elmer (Parker), daughter of Mark Alfred Elmer, son of William Elmer, son of Sarah Peak (Elmer), daughter of Joanna Ellingwood (Peake), daughter of Joanna Hunt (Ellingwood), daughter of Ephraim Hunt, son of Thomas Hunt, son of Ephraim Hunt, son of Enoch Hunt.]

Notes about Enoch Hunt and family
Title The Hunt family and allied families
Stmnt.Resp. compiled by W. Robert Paige, Mary Hunt Paige, and Laura Briggs, 1948
Authors Paige, W. Robert (William Robert), born 1869 (Main Author)Paige, Mary Hunt, b. 1895 (Added Author)Briggs, Laura (Added Author)
Notes Microfilm of typescript (carbon copy, 34 leaves) at the National Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C.
Contents: The Hunt family -- The Cooley family -- The Gunn family -- The Montague family -- The Bowman family -- The Smith family -- The Root family -- The Hubbard family -- The Miller family -- The Richie family -- The Brown family.

Enoch Hunt, a native of Titenden, Lee Parish, Buckshire, England, was admitted as a freeman at New Port, Rhode Island, in 1638. He was living at Weymouth, Massachusetts, by 1640. He married twice and was the father of at least four children. His descendant, William Hunt (1782-1823) was born at Weymouth, the son of Melzar Hunt (1756-1828), a Revolutionary War soldier, and Mercy Cooley Hunt. He married Fanny Montague (1788-1821), in 1805 at Suderland Massachusetts. They had seven children, 1805-1820. He died at Suderland. Descendants listed, chiefly descendants of his son, William Hunt (1807-1870), lived in Massachusetts, Illinois, and elsewhere.
found on ancestry.com

Enoch Military history 1644, York, England
This story is as related by Samuel Hunt, born 1689 concerning the activities of his grandfather, Enoch Hunt. This is from the book, "A Hunt Family from 1610 in England via Massachusetts" by noel D. Patterson.

The activities of his grandfather were very recent for him at the time as the war episodes were only 45 years before his birth.

"Ephriam Hunt's true name was William. He was a Tory Cavalier and was of the artillery in the army of Prince Rupert. Artillery at the time was not so generally understood as it has since become. Colonel Hunt was a very scientific man, of greatest proficiency in his department. The Royal Army lay at York, the city was besieged by insurgents; which such skill did he wield the arm of force with which he was entrusted, that the credit of causing the enemy to raise the siege of York was freely accorded him. The army was flushed with victory and Colonel Hunt was the hero of the day."

"Prince Rupert conferred the dignity of knighthood upon him and directed that his Coat of Arms should bear in a shield and a cannon, in addition to the Wolf's Head, the crest of the hunt family, this was in 1644."

It is reported that the above was a favorite subject of Samuel Hunt, who was born in 1689... He always related the stories whenever the subject of family descent was discussed.
found on ancestry.com

The parish of Lee in Buckinghamshire
22 September 2010, http://www.thelee.org.uk/index.html

Lee (normally referred to as The Lee) is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about 2m north east of Great Missenden and 3m south east of Wendover. The Lee is also the name of a civil parish within Chiltern District.

The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'woodland clearing'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Lee and was, following the Norman Conquest granted by William I to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Its early history is closely tied up with that of Weston Turville and a chapel-of-ease was established in this connection. It and also had associations with the Earl of Leicester who, in the early part of the 12th century charged Ralph de Halton to oversee the lands and at the end of that century, the Turville family took over this role. Soon after this Robert, Earl of Leicester granted the land to Missenden Abbey. After the dissolution of the Abbey, The Lee stayed in the possession of the Crown until in 1547 when Edward VI granted a lease on the estate to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford.

Almost a hundred years on the events that led to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford initially leasing the lands at The Lee to William Plaistowe in 1635 and later selling the land to the Plaistowe family are obscure. Either they were mortgaged to pay off debts or were sequestrated as a consequence of the Russells involvement on the wrong side of the English Civil War. Thomas Plaistowe, who died in 1715 was the first of the family to be the outright owner of The Lee and his namesake in 1785 passed ownership to his daughter Elizabeth who married an Irishman, Henry Deering. Although the Plaistowe's once more owned the village for another 50 years, in 1900 Arthur Lasenby Liberty bought the Manor from John Plaistowe and built a new Manor on the outskirts of the village itself; siting the figurehead of the HMS Impregnable outside the building. The timbers of this ship were also used for his famed Liberty's department store in London. The old Manor simply became three attached properties, they remain so today.(The Liberty family have continued to reside at The Lee to the present day).

Hamlets in the parish of The Lee include Lee Clump, Lee Common, Lee Gate, Hunt's Green and Swan Bottom
found on ancestry.com

Weymouth line of Hunts
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tompkins/manuscripts/manuscripts_mitchell.html
Enoch Hunt, 1638, of Newport, Rhode Island, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, start of the long so-called Weymouth Line of Hunts. Much on him and his family can be found in Wyman, but there are additional stories which provide a much different perception. In Wyman, he and his alleged son Ephraim were called Blacksmiths. Enoch is said to have married at Weymouth the Widow Dorothy Barker and by her had a daughter Sarah born at Weymouth 4 July 1640 (or presumably conceived late in 1639). According to Wyman, after the birth of daughter Sarah, Enoch returned to England alone and died there, power of administration of his estate, "not yet administered," granted to his son Ephraim in Boston Court 18, 9, 1652, OS.

Buckinghamshire, England, records show the marriage in 1609 at Little Baddow, a Parish near Lee, of Enoch Hunt and Sarah Palmer. A son Ephraim was born about 1610 (no record); a son Peter Hunt was christened at Gt. Missenden 4 July 1619.

Back to New England, there is record of Enoch Hunt being admitted to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1638 (bit of a puzzle because Newport was not organized until 1639) and then moving to Weymouth, Massachusetts, where (presumably) a daughter Sarah by the widow Barker was conceived about November 1639 and born 4 July 1640.

Skipping now to 1884, a descendant of Enoch's alleged son Ephraim (Mrs. J. A. Weisse of New York City) published a story (The Refugee--a Story of New England Two Centuries Ago, 38 pages in 5"x 7" print), which appears as an appendix to a History of the Bethune Family published in 1884. This is a romanticized story indeed (includes assumed dialogue between a number of parties, of which there could naturally be no record over 200 years later) and some of the story reported is inconsistent with the pivotal known date (Battle of Marston Moor, July 2, 1644). In any event, here is the gist of the story on Enoch Hunt, start of the Weymouth Line of Hunts and its branch at Rehobeth (and also, it is indicated, the Rhode Island Line of Hunts).

At the time of the Civil War in England (the Puritan Rebellion led by Cromwell) Enoch Hunt was the owner of a foundry at Titenden, Parish of Lee, Buckinghamshire, England, which was producing cannon for the Royalist forces. He had in his family there in 1644 a son Ephraim who had been ill for years and was near death. He also had a wife and a daughter who had grown up with his other children and their cousins. He also had a nephew, Sir William Hunt, who was in charge of the Royal Artillery at the Battle of Marston Moor, wounded in the battle, and escaped on horseback, pursued by the victorious forces of Cromwell. He made his way to his Uncle Enoch's house seeking shelter. Enoch's son Ephraim, about the same age and build as William, died that same night and Enoch decided to bury him as Sir William, William assuming the identity of his son Ephraim. Enoch had earlier visited New England, intending to establish his business there, and had a ship loaded ready to embark for Newport, Rhode Island. He and "Ephraim" boarded that ship and set sail for Rhode Island by the time the forces of Cromwell had reached Enoch's home. Cromwell's men were somewhat suspicious of a scam and sent messages to agents in Rhode Island to question Enoch further upon his arrival. According to the story, Enoch had a younger brother Bartholomew already living in Newport. (From the fact that this Bartholomew was married about the same time as Enoch's known children, had children born about the same time, and died in a similar time period, it would appear more likely that Bartholomew was also a son of Enoch rather than a younger brother.) Bartholomew got wind that the agents of Cromwell were waiting to question Enoch, so he intercepted Enoch's ship in the harbor and warned him to board another boat in the harbor and go to Weymouth, which course was followed. At Weymouth Enoch visited with old friends there who he had known in England, he and "son" Ephraim purchased property there and Ephraim married first at Weymouth about 1645 Anna Richards by whom he had children John, Thomas, and Ephraim, born between 1646 and 1650, Anna died and he married second her friend Ebbett Brimsmead by whom he had children William, Enoch, and Joseph, born between 1655 and 1670. Ephraim died at Weymouth 22 February 1687. After the 1st marriage of Ephraim, Enoch returned to England, intending to settle affairs there and return to Weymouth but he died in England before he could do so. Administration of his estate was granted to his alleged son Ephraim at Boston, Massachusetts, Court in 1652, by which time his alleged second wife, the Widow Barker, had already married John King of Weymouth.

With this, we leave the tangled records of the pioneer Enoch Hunt of Weymouth. His alleged son Ephraim (or is it nephew William) produced a long line of Hunts, which Wyman called the Military Line, because it produced a long line of military officers during the Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, including the Civil War Generals Henry Jackson Hunt and his brother Lewis Cass Hunt and numerous other Civil War officers with names other than Hunt.
found on ancestry.com