General Robert Hunter (1664–1734) was colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1710 to 1720.
A Scot, the son of James Hunter and his wife Margaret Spalding, Hunter had been apprenticed to an apothecary before running away to join the British Army. He became an officer and married a woman of high rank. He was a man of business whose first address to the Assembly was barely 300 words long. In it, he told that "If honesty is the best policy, plainness must be the best oratory".
He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1707, but captured by a corsair on his way to Virginia, taken to France, and exchanged for the French Bishop of Quebec. He was then appointed Governor of New York and sailed to America with 3000 Palatinate refugees as settlers in 1710. He was succeeded as Governor by Peter Schuyler as acting governor from 1719 to 1720 and finally by William Burnet, whose post as Comptroller of Customs was given to Hunter in exchange. Hunter was then Governor of Jamaica from 1727 until his death (in Jamaica).
His play, Androboros, written in 1714, was the first known play to be written and published in the North American British Colonies.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May,1709.[1]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edmund Jenings |
Colonial Governor of Virginia 1707-1709 |
Succeeded by 1st Earl of Orkney |
| Preceded by Richard Ingoldesby |
Governor of New Jersey and Governor of New York 1710–1720 |
Succeeded by William Burnet |
| Preceded by John Ayscough, acting |
Governor of Jamaica 1728–1734 |
Succeeded by John Ayscough, acting |
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