With regard to the expenses of hunting, it is calculated that a master of hounds should be prepared to spend at the rate of £500 a year for every day in the week that his hounds are supposed to hunt. Taking one thing with another,Cost of hunting.this is probably rather under than over the mark, and the cost of hunting three days a week, if the thing be really properly done, will most likely be nearer £2000 than £1500. The expenses to the individual naturally vary so much that no figures can be given. As long ago as 1826 twenty-seven hunters and hacks were sold for 7500 guineas, an average of over £290; and when Lord Stamford ceased to hunt the Quorn in 1853, seventy-three of his horses fetched at auction an average of close on £200. Early in the 19th century, when on the whole horses were much cheaper than they are at present, 700 and 800 guineas are prices recorded as having been occasionally paid for hunters of special repute. A man may see some sport on an animal that cost him £40; others may consider it necessary to keep an expensive establishment at Melton Mowbray or elsewhere in the Shires, with a dozen or more 500-guinea hunters, some covert-hacks, and a corresponding staff of servants. Few people realize what enormous sums of money are annually distributed in connexion with hunting. Horses must be fed; the wages of grooms and helpers be paid; saddlery, clothing, shoeing, &c., are items; farmers, innkeepers, railway companies, fly-men and innumerable others benefit more or less directly.
(A. E. T. W.)
1See on this whole subject ch. viii. of Wilkinson’sAncient Egyptians(ii. 78-92, ed. Birch, 1878).2See Layard (Nineveh, ii. 431, 432), who cites Ammian. Marcell. xxvi. 6, and Athen. xii. 9.3Engl. transl. by Blane.4Hehn,Kulturpflanzen u. Hausthiere, p. 327.5References will be found in Smith’sDictionary of Christian Antiquities—art. on “Hunting.”6“Vita omnis in venationibus ... consistit,” Caes.B.G., vi. 21. “Quoties bella non ineunt, multum venatibus, plus per otium transigunt,” Tacitus,Germ.15.7See Strutt,Sports and Pastimes, who also gives an illustration, “taken from a manuscriptal painting of the 9th century in the Cotton Library,” representing “a Saxon chieftain, attended by his huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild swine in a forest.”8See Lappenberg,Hist. of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings(ii. 361, Thorpe’s trans.).9Le Art de venerie, translated with preface and notes by Sir Henry Dryden (1893), new edition by Miss A. Dryden (1909), includingThe Craft of Veneriefrom a 15th-century MS. and a 13th-century poemLa Chasse d’on cerf.
1See on this whole subject ch. viii. of Wilkinson’sAncient Egyptians(ii. 78-92, ed. Birch, 1878).
2See Layard (Nineveh, ii. 431, 432), who cites Ammian. Marcell. xxvi. 6, and Athen. xii. 9.
3Engl. transl. by Blane.
4Hehn,Kulturpflanzen u. Hausthiere, p. 327.
5References will be found in Smith’sDictionary of Christian Antiquities—art. on “Hunting.”
6“Vita omnis in venationibus ... consistit,” Caes.B.G., vi. 21. “Quoties bella non ineunt, multum venatibus, plus per otium transigunt,” Tacitus,Germ.15.
7See Strutt,Sports and Pastimes, who also gives an illustration, “taken from a manuscriptal painting of the 9th century in the Cotton Library,” representing “a Saxon chieftain, attended by his huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild swine in a forest.”
8See Lappenberg,Hist. of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings(ii. 361, Thorpe’s trans.).
9Le Art de venerie, translated with preface and notes by Sir Henry Dryden (1893), new edition by Miss A. Dryden (1909), includingThe Craft of Veneriefrom a 15th-century MS. and a 13th-century poemLa Chasse d’on cerf.
HUNTING DOG(Lycaon pictus), an African wild dog, differing from the rest of the family in having only four toes on each foot, and its blotched coloration of ochery yellow, black and white. The species is nearly as large as a mastiff, with long limbs, broad flat head, short muzzle and large erect ears, and presents a superficial resemblance to the spotted hyena on which account it is sometimes called the hyena-dog. “Mimicry” has been suggested as an explanation of this likeness; but it is difficult to see what advantage a strong animal hunting in packs like the present species can gain by being mistaken for a hyena, as it is in every respect fully qualified to take care of itself. These wild dogs are found in nearly the whole of Africa south and east of the Sahara. The statement of Gordon Cumming that a pack “could run into the swiftest or overcome the largest and most powerful antelope,” is abundantly confirmed, and these dogs do great damage to sheep flocks. Several local races of the species have been named.
HUNTINGDON, EARLS OF.George Hastings, 1st earl of Huntingdon1(c.1488-1545), was the son and successor ofEdward, 2nd Baron Hastings (d. 1506), and the grandson of William, Baron Hastings, who was put to death by Richard III. in 1483. Being in high favour with Henry VIII., he was created earl of Huntingdon in 1529, and he was one of the royalist leaders during the suppression of the rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. His eldest sonFrancis, the 2nd earl (c.1514-1561), was a close friend and political ally of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, sharing the duke’s fall and imprisonment after the death of Edward VI. in 1553; but he was quickly released, and was employed on public business by Mary. His brother Edward (c.1520-1572) was one of Mary’s most valuable servants; a stout Roman Catholic, he was master of the horse and then lord chamberlain to the queen, and was created Baron Hastings of Loughborough in 1558, this title becoming extinct when he died.
The 2nd earl’s eldest sonHenry, the 3rd earl (c.1535-1595), married Northumberland’s daughter Catherine. His mother was Catherine Pole (d. 1576), a descendant of George, duke of Clarence; and, asserting that he was thus entitled to succeed Elizabeth on the English throne, Huntingdon won a certain amount of support, especially from the Protestants and the enemies of Mary, queen of Scots. In 1572 he was appointed president of the council of the north, and during the troubled period between the flight of Mary to England in 1568 and the defeat of the Spanish armada twenty years later he was frequently employed in the north of England. It was doubtless felt that the earl’s own title to the crown was a pledge that he would show scant sympathy with the advocates of Mary’s claim. He assisted George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, to remove the Scottish queen from Wingfield to Tutbury, and for a short time in 1569 he was one of her custodians. Huntingdon was responsible for the compilation of an elaborate history of the Hastings family, a manuscript copy of which is now in the British Museum. As he died childless, his earldom passed to his brother George. Another brother, Sir Francis Hastings (d. 1610), was a member of parliament and a prominent puritan during Elizabeth’s reign, but is perhaps more celebrated as a writer.George, the 4th earl (c.1540-1604), was the grandfather ofHenry, the 5th earl (1586-1643), and the father of Henry Hastings (c.1560-1650), a famous sportsman, whose character has been delineated by the 1st earl of Shaftesbury (see L. Howard,A Collection of Letters, &c., 1753). The 6th earl was the 5th earl’s sonFerdinando(c.1608-1656). His brother Henry, Baron Loughborough (c.1610-1667), won fame as a royalist during the Civil War, and was created a baron in 1643.
Theophilus, the 7th earl (1650-1701), was the only surviving son of the 6th earl. In early life he showed some animus against the Roman Catholics and a certain sympathy for the duke of Monmouth; afterwards, however, he was a firm supporter of James II., who appointed him to several official positions. He remained in England after the king’s flight and was imprisoned, but after his release he continued to show his hostility to William III. One of his daughters, Lady Elizabeth Hastings (1682-1739), gained celebrity for her charities and her piety. Her beauty drew encomiums from Congreve and from Steele in the pages of theTatler, and her other qualities were praised by William Law. She was a benefactor to Queen’s College, Oxford.
The 7th earl’s sons, George and Theophilus, succeeded in turn to the earldom.George(1677-1705) was a soldier who served under Marlborough, andTheophilus(1696-1746) was the husband of the famous Selina, countess of Huntingdon (q.v.). Theophilus was succeeded by his sonFrancis(1729-1789), on whose death unmarried the baronies passed to his sister Elizabeth (1731-1808), wife of John Rawdon, earl of Moira, and the earldom became dormant.
The title of earl of Huntingdon was assumed byTheophilus Henry Hastings(1728-1804), a descendant of the 2nd earl, who, however, had taken no steps to prove his title when he died. But, aided by his friend Henry Nugent Bell (1792-1822), his nephew and heir,Hans Francis Hastings(1779-1828), was more energetic, and in 1818 his right to the earldom was declared proved, and he took his seat in the House of Lords. He did not, however, recover the estates. Before thus becoming the 11th (or 12th) earl, Hastings had served for many years in the navy, and after the event he was appointed governor of Dominica. He died on the 9th of December 1828 and was succeeded by his sonFrancis Theophilus Henry(1808-1875), whose grandson,Warner Francis, became 14th or 15th earl of Huntingdon in 1885. Another of the 11th earl’s sons was Vice-admiral George Fowler Hastings (1814-1876).
See H. N. Bell,The Huntingdon Peerage(1820).
See H. N. Bell,The Huntingdon Peerage(1820).
1The title of earl of Huntingdon had previously been held in other families (seeHuntingdonshire). The famous Robin Hood (?1160-?1247) is said to have had a claim to the earldom.
1The title of earl of Huntingdon had previously been held in other families (seeHuntingdonshire). The famous Robin Hood (?1160-?1247) is said to have had a claim to the earldom.
HUNTINGDON, SELINA HASTINGS,Countess of(1707-1791), English religious leader and founder of a sect of Calvinistic Methodists, known as the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, was the daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers. She was born at Stanton Harold, a mansion near Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, on the 24th of August 1707, and in her twenty-first year was married to Theophilus Hastings, 9th earl of Huntingdon. In 1739 she joined the first Methodist society in Fetter Lane, London. On the death of her husband in 1746 she threw in her lot with Wesley and Whitefield in the work of the great revival. Isaac Watts, Philip Doddridge and A. M. Toplady were among her friends. In 1748 she gave Whitefield a scarf as her chaplain, and in that capacity he frequently preached in her London house in Park Street to audiences that included Chesterfield, Walpole and Bolingbroke. In her chapel at Bath there was a curtained recess dubbed “Nicodemus’s corner” where some of the bishops sat incognito to hear him. Lady Huntingdon spent her ample means in building chapels in different parts of England,e.g.at Brighton (1761), London and Bath (1765), Tunbridge Wells (1769), and appointed ministers to officiate in them, under the impression that as a peeress she had a right to employ as many chaplains as she pleased. It is said that she expended £100,000 in the cause of religion. In 1768 she converted the old mansion of Trevecca, near Talgarth, in South Wales, into a theological seminary for young ministers for the connexion. Up to 1779 Lady Huntingdon and her chaplains continued members of the Church of England, but in that year the prohibition of her chaplains by the consistorial court from preaching in the Pantheon, a large building in London rented for the purpose by the countess, compelled her, in order to evade the injunction, to take shelter under the Toleration Act. This step, which placed her legally among dissenters, had the effect of severing from the connexion several eminent and useful members, among them William Romaine (1714-1795) and Henry Venn (1725-1797). Till her death in London on the 17th of June 1791, Lady Huntingdon continued to exercise an active, and even autocratic, superintendence over her chapels and chaplains. She successfully petitioned George III. in regard to the gaiety of Archbishop Cornwallis’s establishment, and made a vigorous protest against the anti-Calvinistic minutes of the Wesleyan Conference of 1770, and against relaxing the terms of subscription in 1772. Her sixty-four chapels and the college were bequeathed to four trustees. In 1792 the college was removed to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, where it remained till 1905, when it was transferred to Cambridge. The college is remarkable for the number of men it has sent into the foreign mission field.
The connexion in 1910 consisted of 44 churches and mission stations, with a roll of about 2400 communicants under 26 ordained pastors. The government is vested by the trust deed, sanctioned by the court of Chancery on the 1st of January 1899, in nine trustees assisted by a conference of delegates from each church in the trust. The endowments of the trust produce £1500 per annum, and are devoted to four purposes: grants in aid of the ministry; annuities to ministers over sixty years of age who have given more than twenty years’ continuous service in the connexion, or to their widows; grants for the maintenance and extension of the existing buildings belonging to the trust; grants to assist in purchasing chapels and chapel sites. In addition the trustees may grant loans for the encouragement of new progressive work from a loan fund of about £8000.SeeThe Life of the Countess of Huntingdon(London, 2 vols., 1844); A. H. New,The Coronet and the Cross, or Memorials of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon(1857); Sarah Tytler,The Countess of Huntingdon and her Circle(1907).
The connexion in 1910 consisted of 44 churches and mission stations, with a roll of about 2400 communicants under 26 ordained pastors. The government is vested by the trust deed, sanctioned by the court of Chancery on the 1st of January 1899, in nine trustees assisted by a conference of delegates from each church in the trust. The endowments of the trust produce £1500 per annum, and are devoted to four purposes: grants in aid of the ministry; annuities to ministers over sixty years of age who have given more than twenty years’ continuous service in the connexion, or to their widows; grants for the maintenance and extension of the existing buildings belonging to the trust; grants to assist in purchasing chapels and chapel sites. In addition the trustees may grant loans for the encouragement of new progressive work from a loan fund of about £8000.
SeeThe Life of the Countess of Huntingdon(London, 2 vols., 1844); A. H. New,The Coronet and the Cross, or Memorials of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon(1857); Sarah Tytler,The Countess of Huntingdon and her Circle(1907).
HUNTINGDON,a market town and municipal borough and the county town of Huntingdonshire, England, on the left bank of the Ouse, on the Great Northern, Great Eastern and Midlandrailways, 59 m. N. of London. Pop. (1901) 4261. It consists principally of one street, about a mile long, in the centre of which is the market-place. Of the ancient religious houses in Huntingdon few traces remain. The parish church of St Mary occupies the site of the priory of Augustinian Canons already existing in the 10th century, in which David Bruce, Scottish earl of Huntingdon, was afterwards buried. The church, which was restored by Sir A. W. Blomfield, in 1876, contains portions of the earlier building which it replaced in 1620. All Saints’ church, rebuilt about a century earlier, has slight remains of the original Norman church and some good modern, as well as ancient, carved woodwork. The church registers dating from 1558 are preserved, together with those of the old parish of St John, which date from 1585 and contain the entry of Oliver Cromwell’s baptism on the 29th of April 1599, the house in which he was born being still in existence. Some Norman remains of the hospice of St John the Baptist founded by David, king of Scotland, at the end of the 12th century were incorporated in the buildings of Huntingdon grammar school, once attended by Oliver Cromwell and by Samuel Pepys. Hinchingbrooke House, on the outskirts of the town, an Elizabethan mansion chiefly of the 16th century, was the seat of the Cromwell family, others of the Montagus, earls of Sandwich. It occupies the site of a Benedictine nunnery granted by Henry VIII. at the Dissolution, together with many other manors in Huntingdonshire, to Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, whose son, Sir Henry Cromwell, entertained Queen Elizabeth here in 1564. His son, Sir Oliver Cromwell, was the uncle and godfather of the Protector. Among the buildings of Huntingdon are the town hall (1745), county gaol, barracks, county hospital and the Montagu Institute (1897). A racecourse is situated in the bend of the Ouse to the south of the town, and meetings are held here in August. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 1074 acres.
Huntingdon (Huntandun,Huntersdune) was taken by the Danes in King Alfred’s reign but recoveredc.919 by Edward the Elder, who raised a castle there, probably on the site of an older fortress. In 1010 the Danes destroyed the town. The castle was strengthened by David, king of Scotland, after the Conquest, but was among the castles destroyed by order of Henry II. At the time of the Domesday Survey Huntingdon was divided into four divisions, two containing 116 burgesses and the other two 140. Most of the burgesses belonged to the king and paid a rent of £10 yearly. King John in 1205 granted them the liberties and privileges held by the men of other boroughs in England and increased the farm to £20. Henry III. further increased it to £40 in 1252. The borough was incorporated by Richard III. in 1483 under the title of bailiffs and burgesses, and in 1630 Charles I. granted a new charter, appointing a mayor and 12 aldermen, which remained the governing charter until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 changed the corporation to a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. The burgesses were represented in parliament by two members from 1295 to 1867, when the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 they ceased to be separately represented. Huntingdon owed its prosperity to its situation on the Roman Ermine Street. It has never been noted for manufactures, but is the centre of an agricultural district. The market held on Saturday was granted to the burgesses by King John. During the Civil Wars Huntingdon was several times occupied by the Royalists.
SeeVictoria County History, Huntingdon; Robert Carruthers,The History of Huntingdon from the Earliest to the Present Times(1824); Edward Griffith,A Collection of Ancient Records relating to the Borough of Huntingdon(1827).
SeeVictoria County History, Huntingdon; Robert Carruthers,The History of Huntingdon from the Earliest to the Present Times(1824); Edward Griffith,A Collection of Ancient Records relating to the Borough of Huntingdon(1827).
HUNTINGDON,a borough and the county-seat of Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Juniata river, about 150 m. E. of Pittsburg, in the S. central part of the state. Pop. (1890) 5729; (1900) 6053 (225 foreign-born); (1910) 6861. It is served by the Pennsylvania and the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain railways, the latter running to the Broad Top Mountain coal-fields in the S.W. part of the county. The borough is built on ground sloping gently towards the river, which furnishes valuable water power. The surrounding country is well adapted to agriculture, and abounds in coal, iron, fire clay, limestone and white sand. Huntingdon’s principal manufactures are stationery, flour, knitting-goods, furniture, boilers, radiators and sewer pipe. It is the seat of Juniata College (German Baptist Brethren), opened in 1876 as the Brethren’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute, and rechartered as Juniata College in 1896, and of the State Industrial Reformatory, opened in 1888. Indians (probably Oneidas) settled near the site of Huntingdon, erected here a tall pillar, known as “Standing Stone”; the original was removed by the Indians, but another has been erected by the borough on the same spot. The place was laid out as a town in 1767 under the direction of Dr William Smith (1727-1803), at the time provost of the college of Pennsylvania (afterwards the university of Pennsylvania); and it was named in honour of the countess of Huntingdon, who had contributed liberally toward the maintenance of that institution. It was incorporated as a borough in 1796.
HUNTINGDONSHIRE (HUNTS),an east midland county of England, bounded N. and W. by Northamptonshire, S.W. by Bedfordshire and E. by Cambridgeshire. Among English counties it is the smallest with the exception of Middlesex and Rutland, having an area of 366 sq. m. The surface is low, and for the most part bare of trees. The south-eastern corner of the county, bounded by the Ouse valley, is traversed by a low ridge of hills entering from Cambridgeshire, and continued over the whole western half of the county, as well as in a strip about 6 m. broad north of the Ouse, between Huntingdon and St Ives. These hills never exceed 300 ft. in height, but form a pleasantly undulating surface. The north-eastern part of the county, comprising 50,000 acres, belongs to that division of the great Fen district called the Bedford Levels. The principal rivers are the Ouse and Nene. The Ouse from Bedfordshire skirts the borders of the county near St Neots, and after flowing north to Huntingdon takes an easterly direction past St Ives into Cambridgeshire on its way to the Wash. The Kym, from Northamptonshire, follows a south-easterly course and joins the Ouse at St Neots, while the Alconbury brook, flowing in a parallel direction, falls into it at Huntingdon. The Nene forms for 15 m. the north-western border of the county, and quitting it near Peterborough, enters the Wash below Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire. The course of the Old River Nene is eastward across the county midway between Huntingdon and Peterborough, and about 1½ m. N. by E. of Ramsey it is intersected by the Forty Foot, or Vermuyden’s Drain, a navigable cut connecting it with the Old Bedford river in Cambridgeshire.
Geology.—The geological structure is very simple. All the stratified rocks are of Jurassic age, with the exception of a small area of Lower Greensand which extends for a short distance along the border, north of Potton. The Greensands form low, rounded hills. Phosphatic nodules are obtained from these beds. On the north-western border is a narrow strip of Inferior Oolite, reaching from Thrapston by Oundle to Wansford near Peterborough. It is represented about Wansford by the Northampton sands and by a feeble development of the Lincolnshire limestone. The Great Oolite Series has at the base the Upper Estuarine clays; in the middle, the Great Oolite limestone, which forms the escarpment of Alwalton Lynch; and at the top, the Great Oolite clay. The Cornbrash is exposed along part of the Billing brook, and in a small inlier near Yaxley. Over the remainder of the county the lower rocks are covered by the Oxford clay. It is about 600 ft. thick. This clay cannot be distinguished from the Kimmeridge clay except by the fossils; the two formations probably graduate into one another, but thin limestones are found in places, and at St Ives a patch of the intermediate Corallian rock is present. All the stratified rocks have a general dip towards the south-east.Much glacial drift clay with stones covers the older rocks over a good deal of the county; it is a bluish clay, often containing masses of chalk, some of them being of considerable size,e.g.the one at Catworth. The Fens on the eastern side of the county are underlain by Oxford clay, which here and there projects through the prevailing newer deposit of silt and loam. There are usually two beds of peat or peaty soil observable in the numerous drains; they are separated by a bed of marine warp. Black loamy alluvium and valley gravels, the most recent deposits, occur in the valleys of the Ouse and Nene. Calcareous tufa is formed by the springs near Alwalton. Oxford clay is dug on a considerable scale for brick-making at Fletton, also at St Ives, Ramsey and St Neots.
Geology.—The geological structure is very simple. All the stratified rocks are of Jurassic age, with the exception of a small area of Lower Greensand which extends for a short distance along the border, north of Potton. The Greensands form low, rounded hills. Phosphatic nodules are obtained from these beds. On the north-western border is a narrow strip of Inferior Oolite, reaching from Thrapston by Oundle to Wansford near Peterborough. It is represented about Wansford by the Northampton sands and by a feeble development of the Lincolnshire limestone. The Great Oolite Series has at the base the Upper Estuarine clays; in the middle, the Great Oolite limestone, which forms the escarpment of Alwalton Lynch; and at the top, the Great Oolite clay. The Cornbrash is exposed along part of the Billing brook, and in a small inlier near Yaxley. Over the remainder of the county the lower rocks are covered by the Oxford clay. It is about 600 ft. thick. This clay cannot be distinguished from the Kimmeridge clay except by the fossils; the two formations probably graduate into one another, but thin limestones are found in places, and at St Ives a patch of the intermediate Corallian rock is present. All the stratified rocks have a general dip towards the south-east.
Much glacial drift clay with stones covers the older rocks over a good deal of the county; it is a bluish clay, often containing masses of chalk, some of them being of considerable size,e.g.the one at Catworth. The Fens on the eastern side of the county are underlain by Oxford clay, which here and there projects through the prevailing newer deposit of silt and loam. There are usually two beds of peat or peaty soil observable in the numerous drains; they are separated by a bed of marine warp. Black loamy alluvium and valley gravels, the most recent deposits, occur in the valleys of the Ouse and Nene. Calcareous tufa is formed by the springs near Alwalton. Oxford clay is dug on a considerable scale for brick-making at Fletton, also at St Ives, Ramsey and St Neots.
Agriculture.—Huntingdonshire is almost wholly an agricultural county; nearly nine-tenths of its total area is under cultivation, and much improvement has been effected by drainage. On account of the tenacity of the clay the drains often require to be placed very close. Much of the soil is, however, undrained, and only partly used for pasturage. On the drained pasturage a large number of cattle are fed. The district comprising the gravel of the Ouse valley embraces an area of 50,000 acres. On the banks of the Ouse it consists of fine black loam deposited by the overflow of the river, and its meadows form very rich pasture grounds. The upland district is under arable culture. Wheat is much more extensively grown than any other grain. Barley is more widely cultivated than oats, but its quality on many soils is lean and inferior, and unsuitable for malting purposes. Beans and pease are largely grown, while mangold and cabbage and similar green crops are chiefly used for the feeding of sheep. During the last quarter of the 19th century there was a large decrease in the areas of grain crops and of fallow, and an increase in that of permanent pasture. Market-gardening and fruit-farming, however, greatly increased in importance. Willows are largely grown in the fen district. Good drinking water is deficient in many districts, but there are three natural springs, once famous for the healing virtues their waters were thought to possess, namely, at Hail Weston near St Neots, at Holywell near St Ives and at Somersham in the same district. Bee-farming is largely practised. Dairy-farming is not much followed, the milk being chiefly used for rearing calves. The village of Stilton, on the Great North Road, had formerly a large market for the well-known cheese to which it has given its name. Large numbers of cattle are fattened in the field or the fold-yard, and are sold when rising three years old. They are mostly of the shorthorn breed, large numbers of Irish shorthorns being wintered in the fens. Leicesters and Lincolns are the most common breeds of sheep; they usually attain great weights at an early age. Pigs include Berkshire, Suffolk and Neapolitan breeds, and a number of crosses. Their fattening and breeding are extensively practised.
Other Industries.—There is no extensive manufacture, but the chief is that of paper and parchment. Madder is obtained in considerable quantities, and in nearly every part of the county lime burning is carried on. Lace-making is practised by the female peasantry; and the other industries are printing, iron-founding, tanning and currying, brick and tile making, malting and brewing.
Communications.—The middle of the county is traversed from south to north by the Great Northern railway, which enters it at St Neots and passing by Huntingdon leaves it at Peterborough. A branch line running eastward to Ramsey is given off at Holme junction, midway between Huntingdon and Peterborough. From Huntingdon branch lines of the Midland and the Great Eastern run respectively west and east to Thrapston (Northamptonshire) and to Cambridge via St Ives. From St Ives Great Eastern lines also run N.E. to Ely (Cambridgeshire) via Earith Bridges on the county border, and N. to Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) with a branch line westward from Somersham to Ramsey. The north-western border is served by the Great Northern and the London and North-Western railways between Peterborough and Wansford, where they part.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 234,218 acres, with a population in 1891 of 57,761, and in 1901 of 57,771. The area of the administrative county is 233,984 acres. The county contains 4 hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Godmanchester (pop. 2017), Huntingdon, the county town (4261) and St Ives (2910). The other urban districts are Old Fletton (4585), Ramsey (4823) and St Neots (3880). The county is in the south-eastern circuit, and assizes are held at Huntingdon. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into five petty sessional divisions. There are 105 civil parishes. Huntingdonshire, which contains 87 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part, is almost wholly in the diocese of Ely, but a small part is in that of Peterborough. The parliamentary divisions, each of which returns one member, are the Northern or Ramsey and the Southern or Huntingdon. Part of the parliamentary borough of Peterborough also falls within the county.
History.—The earliest English settlers in the district were the Gyrwas, an East Anglian tribe, who early in the 6th century worked their way up the Ouse and the Cam as far as Huntingdon. After their conquest of East Anglia in the latter half of the 9th century, Huntingdon became an important seat of the Danes, and the Danish origin of the shire is borne out by an entry in the Saxon Chronicle (918-921) referring to Huntingdon as a military centre to which the surrounding district owed allegiance, while the shire itself is mentioned in theHistoria Eliensisin connexion with events which took place before or shortly after the death of Edgar. About 915 Edward the Elder wrested the fen-country from the Danes, repairing and fortifying Huntingdon, and a few years later the district was included in the earldom of East Anglia. Religious foundations were established at Ramsey, Huntingdon and St Neots in the 10th century, and that of Ramsey accumulated vast wealth and influence, owning twenty-six manors in this county alone at the time of the Domesday Survey. In 1011 Huntingdonshire was again overrun by the Danes and in 1016 was attacked by Canute. A few years later the shire was included in the earldom of Thored (of the Middle Angles), but in 1051 it was detached from Mercia and formed part of the East Anglian earldom of Harold. Shortly before the Conquest, however, it was bestowed on Siward, as a reward for his part in Godwin’s overthrow, and became an outlying portion of the earldom of Northumberland, passing through Waltheof and Simon de St Liz to David of Scotland. After the separation of the earldom from the crown of Scotland during the Bruce and Balliol disputes, it was conferred in 1336 on William Clinton; in 1377 on Guichard d’Angle; in 1387 on John Holand; in 1471 on Thomas Grey, afterwards marquess of Dorset; and in 1529 on George, Baron Hastings, whose descendants hold it at the present day.
The Norman Conquest was followed by a general confiscation of estates, and only four or five thanes retained lands which they or their fathers had held in the time of Edward the Confessor. Large estates were held by the church, and the rest of the county for the most part formed outlying portions of the fiefs of William’s Norman favourites, that of Count Eustace of Boulogne, the sheriff, of whose tyrannous exactions bitter complaints are recorded, being by far the most considerable. Kimbolton was fortified by Geoffrey de Mandeville and afterwards passed to the families of Bohun and Stafford.
The hundreds of Huntingdon were probably of very early origin, and that of Norman Cross is referred to in 963. The Domesday Survey, besides the four existing divisions of Norman Cross, Toseland, Hurstingstone and Leightonstone, which from their assessment appear to have been double hundreds, mentions an additional hundred of Kimbolton, since absorbed in Leightonstone, while Huntingdon is assessed separately at fifty hides. The boundaries of the county have scarcely changed since the time of the Domesday Survey, except that parts of the Bedfordshire parishes of Everton, Pertenhall and Keysoe and the Northamptonshire parish of Hargrave were then assessed under this county. Huntingdonshire was formerly in the diocese of Lincoln, but in 1837 was transferred to Ely. In 1291 it constituted an archdeaconry, comprising the deaneries of Huntingdon, St Ives, Yaxley and Leightonstone, and the divisions remained unchanged until the creation of the deanery of Kimbolton in 1879.
At the time of the Domesday Survey Huntingdonshire had an independent shrievalty, but from 1154 it was united with Cambridgeshire under one sheriff, until in 1637 the two counties were separated for six years, after which they were reunited and have remained so to the present day. The shire-court was held at Huntingdon.
In 1174 Henry II. captured and destroyed Huntingdon Castle. After signing the Great Charter John sent an army to ravage this county under William, earl of Salisbury, and Falkes de Breauté. During the wars of the Roses Huntingdon was sacked by theLancastrians. The county resisted the illegal taxation of Charles I. and joined in a protest against the arrest of the five members. In 1642 it was one of the seven associated counties in which the king had no visible party. Hinchingbrook, however, was held for Charles by Sir Sydney Montagu, and in 1645 Huntingdon was captured and plundered by the Royalist forces. The chief historic family connected with this county were the Cromwells, who held considerable estates in the 16th century.
Huntingdonshire has always been mainly an agricultural county, and at the time of the Domesday Survey contained thirty-one mills, besides valuable fisheries in its meres and rivers. The woollen industry flourished in the county from Norman times, and previous to the draining of its fens in the 17th century, by which large areas were brought under cultivation, the industries of turf-cutting, reed-cutting for thatch and the manufacture of horse-collars from rushes were carried on in Ramsey and the surrounding district. In the 17th century saltpetre was manufactured in the county. In the 18th century women and children were largely employed in spinning yarn, and pillow-lace making and the straw-plait industry flourished in the St Neots district, where it survives; pillow lace was also manufactured at Godmanchester. In the early 19th century there were two large sacking manufactures at Standground, and brewing and malting were largely carried on.
Huntingdonshire was represented by three members in parliament in 1290. From 1295 the county and borough of Huntingdon returned two members each, until in 1868 the representation of the borough was reduced to one member. By the act of 1885 the borough was disfranchised.
Antiquities.—Huntingdonshire early became famous on account of its great Benedictine abbey at Ramsey and the Cistercian abbey founded in 1146 at Sawtry, 7 m. W. of Ramsey; besides which there were priories at Huntingdon and Stonely, both belonging to the Augustinian canons, and at St Ives and St Neots belonging to the Benedictines, together with a Benedictine nunnery at Hinchingbrook, near Huntingdon. Of these buildings almost the only remains are at Ramsey and St Ives. The most interesting churches for Norman architecture are Hartford near Huntingdon, Old Fletton near Peterborough (containing on the exterior some carved ornament said to have belonged to the original Saxon cathedral at Peterborough), Ramsey and Alwalton, a singular combination of Norman and Early English. Early English churches are Kimbolton, Alconbury, Warboys and Somersham, near Ramsey, and Hail Weston near St Neots, with a 15th-century wooden tower and spire. Decorated are Orton Longueville and Yaxley, both near Peterborough, the latter containing remains of frescoes on its walls; Perpendicular, St Neots, Connington near Ramsey and Godmanchester. At Buckden near Huntingdon are remains of a palace (15th century) of the bishops of Lincoln. There were two ancient castles in the county, at Huntingdon and at Kimbolton, of which only the second remains as a mansion. Hinchingbrook House, Huntingdon, was the seat of the Cromwell family. Connington Castle passed, like the title of earl of Huntingdon, through the hands of Waltheof, Simon de St Liz and the Scottish royal family, and was finally inherited by Sir Robert Cotton the antiquary, who was born in the neighbourhood, and is buried in Connington church. Elton Hall, on the north-west border of the county, was rebuilt about 1660, and contains, besides a good collection of pictures, chiefly by English masters, a library which includes many old and rare prayer-books, Bibles and missals.
Norman Cross, 13 m. N. of Huntingdon, on the Great North Road, marks the site of the place of confinement of several thousand French soldiers during the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century. The village of Little Gidding, 9 m. N.W. of Huntingdon, is memorable for its connexion with Nicholas Ferrar in the reign of Charles I., when the religious community of which Ferrar was the head was organized. Relics connected with this community are preserved in the British Museum.
Norman Cross, 13 m. N. of Huntingdon, on the Great North Road, marks the site of the place of confinement of several thousand French soldiers during the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century. The village of Little Gidding, 9 m. N.W. of Huntingdon, is memorable for its connexion with Nicholas Ferrar in the reign of Charles I., when the religious community of which Ferrar was the head was organized. Relics connected with this community are preserved in the British Museum.
HUNTINGTON, DANIEL(1816-1906), American artist, was born in New York on the 14th of October 1816. In 1835 he studied with S. F. B. Morse, and produced “A Bar-Room Politician” and “A Toper Asleep.” Subsequently he painted some landscapes on the river Hudson, and in 1839 went to Rome. On his return to America he painted portraits and began the illustration ofThe Pilgrim’s Progress, but his eyesight failed, and in 1844 he went back to Rome. Returning to New York in 1846, he devoted his time chiefly to portrait-painting, although he has painted many genre, religious and historical subjects. He was president of the National Academy from 1862 to 1870, and again in 1877-1890. Among his principal works are: “The Florentine Girl,” “Early Christian Prisoners,” “The Shepherd Boy of the Campagna,” “The Roman Penitents,” “Christiana and Her Children,” “Queen Mary signing the Death-Warrant of Lady Jane Grey,” and “Feckenham in the Tower” (1850), “Chocorua” (1860), “Republican Court in the Time of Washington,” containing sixty-four careful portraits (1861), “Sowing the Word” (1869), “St Jerome,” “Juliet on the Balcony” (1870), “The Narrows, Lake George” (1871), “Titian,” “Clement VII. and Charles V. at Bologna,” “Philosophy and Christian Art” (1878), “Goldsmith’s Daughter” (1884). His principal portraits are: President Lincoln, in Union League Club, New York; Chancellor Ferris of New York University; Sir Charles Eastlake and the earl of Carlyle, the property of the New York Historical Society; President Van Buren, in the State Library at Albany; James Lenox, in the Lenox Library; Louis Agassiz (1856-1857), William Cullen Bryant (1866), John A. Dix (1880) and John Sherman (1881). He died on the 19th of April 1906 in New York City.
HUNTINGTON, FREDERIC DAN(1819-1904), American clergyman, first Protestant Episcopal bishop of central New York, was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, on the 28th of May 1819. He graduated at Amherst in 1839 and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1842. In 1842-1855 he was pastor of the South Congregational Church of Boston, and in 1855-1860 was preacher to the university and Plummer professor of Christian Morals at Harvard; he then left the Unitarian Church, with which his father had been connected as a clergyman at Hadley, resigned his professorship and became pastor of the newly established Emmanuel Church of Boston. He had refused the bishopric of Maine when in 1868 he was elected to the diocese of central New York. He was consecrated on the 9th of April 1869, and thereafter lived in Syracuse. He died in Hadley, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July 1904. His more important publications wereLectures on Human Society(1860);Memorials of a Quiet Life(1874); andThe Golden Rule applied to Business and Social Conditions(1892).
SeeMemoir and Letters of Frederic Dan Huntington(Boston, 1906), by Arria S. Huntington, his wife.
SeeMemoir and Letters of Frederic Dan Huntington(Boston, 1906), by Arria S. Huntington, his wife.
HUNTINGTON,a city and the county-seat of Huntington county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the Little river, about 25 m. S.W. of Fort Wayne. Pop. (1900) 9491, of whom 621 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 10,272. Huntington is served by three railways—the Wabash, the Erie (which has car shops and division headquarters here) and the Cincinnati, Bluffton & Chicago (which has machine shops here), and by the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company, whose car and repair shops and power station are in Huntington. The city has a public library, a business college and Central College (1897), controlled by the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution). Woodenware is the principal manufacture. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $2,081,019, an increase of 20.6% since 1900. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks and the electric-lighting plant. Huntington, named in honour of Samuel Huntington (1736-1796), of Connecticut, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was first settled about 1829, was incorporated as a town in 1848 and was chartered as a city in 1873.
HUNTINGTON,a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A., in the central part of the N. side of Long Island, bounded on the N. by Huntington Bay, a part of Long Island Sound. Pop. (1905, state census) 10,230; (1910) 12,004. The S. part of the township is largely taken up with market-gardening; but along the Sound are the villages of Huntington, Cold SpringHarbor, Centreport and Northport, which are famous for the fine residences owned by New York business men; they are served by the Wading river branch of the Long Island Railroad. Northport—pop. (1910 census) 2096—incorporated in 1894, is the most easterly of these; it has a large law-publishing house, shipbuilding yards and valuable oyster-fisheries. Cold Spring Harbor, 32 m. E. of Brooklyn, is a small unincorporated village, once famous for its whale-fisheries, and now best known for the presence here of the New York State Fish Hatchery, and of the Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and of the laboratory of the Department of Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The village of Huntington, 3½ m. E. of Cold Spring, is unincorporated, but is the most important of the three and has the largest summer colony. There is a public park on the water-front. The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Building is occupied by the public library, which faces a monument to Nathan Hale on Main Street. A big boulder on the shore of the bay marks the place of Hale’s capture by the British on the 21st of September 1776. Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) occupied the village and built a British fort here near the close of the American War of Independence. Huntington’s inhabitants were mostly strong patriots, notably Ebenezer Prime (1700-1779), pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, which the British used as a barracks, and his son Benjamin Young Prime (1733-1791), a physician, linguist and patriot poet, who was the father of Samuel Irenaeus Prime (1812-1885), editor of the New YorkObserver. Walt Whitman was born near the village of Huntington, and established there in 1836, and for three years edited, the weekly newspaper theLong Islander. The first settlement in the township was made in 1653; in 1662-1664 Huntington was under the government of Connecticut. The township until 1872 included the present township of Babylon to the S., along the Great South Bay.
HUNTINGTON,a city and the county-seat of Cabell county, West Virginia, U.S.A., about 50 m. W. of Charleston, W. Va., on the S. bank of the Ohio river, just below the mouth of the Guyandotte river. Pop. (1900) 11,923, of whom 1212 were negroes; (1910 census) 31,161. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Chesapeake & Ohio railways, and by several lines of river steamboats. The city is the seat of Marshall College (founded in 1837; a State Normal School in 1867), which in 1907-1908 had 34 instructors and 1100 students; and of the West Virginia State Asylum for the Incurable Insane; and it has a Carnegie library and a city hospital. Huntington has extensive railway car and repair shops, besides foundries and machine shops, steel rolling mills, manufactories of stoves and ranges, breweries and glass works. The value of the city’s factory product in 1905 was $4,407,153, an increase of 21% over that of 1900. Huntington dates from 1871, when it became the western terminus of the Chesapeake & Ohio railway, was named in honour of Collis P. Huntington (1821-1900), the president of the road, and was incorporated.
HUNTINGTOWER AND RUTHVENFIELD,a village of Perthshire, Scotland, on the Almond, 3 m. N.W. of Perth, and within 1 m. of Almondbank station on the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 459. Bleaching, the chief industry, dates from 1774, when the bleaching-field was formed. By means of an old aqueduct, said to have been built by the Romans, it was provided with water from the Almond, the properties of which render it specially suited for bleaching. Huntingtower (originally Ruthven) Castle, a once formidable structure, was the scene of the Raid of Ruthven (pron.Rivven), when the Protestant lords, headed by William, 4th Lord Ruthven and 1st earl of Gowrie (1541-1584), kidnapped the boy-king James VI., on the 22nd of August 1582. The earl’s sons were slain in the attempt (known as the Gowrie conspiracy) to capture James VI. (1600), consequent on which the Scots parliament ordered the name of Ruthven to be abolished, and the barony to be known in future as Huntingtower.
HUNTLY, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF.This Scottish title, in the Gordon family, dates as to the earldom from 1449, and as to the marquessate (the premier marquessate in Scotland) from 1599. The first earl (d. 1470) was Alexander de Seton, lord of Gordon—a title known before 1408; and his son George (d. 1502), by his marriage with Princess Annabella (afterwards divorced), daughter of James I. of Scotland, had several children, including, besides his successor the 3rd earl (Alexander), a second son Adam (who became earl of Sutherland), a third son William (from whom the mother of the poet Byron was descended) and a daughter Katherine, who first married Perkin Warbeck and afterwards Sir Matthew Cradock (from whom the earls of Pembroke descended). Alexander, the 3rd earl (d. 1524), consolidated the position of his house as supreme in the north; he led the Scottish vanguard at Flodden, and was a supporter of Albany against Angus. His grandson George, 4th earl (1514-1562), who in 1548 was granted the earldom of Moray, played a leading part in the troubles of his time in Scotland, and in 1562 revolted against Queen Mary and was killed in fight at Corrichie, near Aberdeen. His son George (d. 1576) was restored to the forfeited earldom in 1565; he became Bothwell’s close associate—he helped Bothwell, who had married his sister, to obtain a divorce from her; and he was a powerful supporter of Mary till he seceded from her cause in 1572.
George Gordon, 1st marquess of Huntly (1562-1626), son of the 5th earl of Huntly, and of Anne, daughter of James Hamilton, earl of Arran and duke of Chatelherault, was born in 1562, and educated in France as a Roman Catholic. He took part in the plot which led to the execution of Morton in 1581 and in the conspiracy which delivered King James VI. from the Ruthven raiders in 1583. In 1588 he signed the Presbyterian confession of faith, but continued to engage in plots for the Spanish invasion of Scotland. On the 28th of November he was appointed captain of the guard, and while carrying out his duties at Holyrood his treasonable correspondence was discovered. James, however, who found the Roman Catholic lords useful as a foil to the tyranny of the Kirk, and was at this time seeking Spanish aid in case of Elizabeth’s denial of his right to the English throne, and with whom Huntly was always a favourite, pardoned him. Subsequently in April 1589 he raised a rebellion in the north, but was obliged to submit, and after a short imprisonment in Borthwick Castle was again set at liberty. He next involved himself in a private war with the Grants and the Mackintoshes, who were assisted by the earls of Atholl and Murray; and on the 8th of February 1592 he set fire to Murray’s castle of Donibristle in Fife, and stabbed the earl to death with his own hand. This outrage, which originated the ballad “The Bonnie Earl of Moray,” brought down upon Huntly his enemies, who ravaged his lands. In December the “Spanish Blanks” were intercepted (seeErrol, Francis Hay, 9th Earl of), two of which bore Huntly’s signature, and a charge of treason was again preferred against him, while on the 25th of September 1593 he was excommunicated. James treated him and the other rebel lords with great leniency. On the 26th of November they were freed from the charge of treason, being ordered at the same time, however, to renounce Romanism or leave the kingdom. On their refusal to comply they were attainted. Subsequently Huntly joined Erroll and Bothwell in a conspiracy to imprison the king, and the former two defeated the royal forces under Argyll at Glenlivat on the 3rd of October 1594, Huntly especially distinguishing himself. His victory, however, gained no real advantage; his castle of Strathbogie was blown up by James, and he left Scotland about March 1595. He returned secretly very soon afterwards, and his presence in Scotland was at first connived at by James; but owing to the hostile feeling aroused, and the “No Popery” riot in Edinburgh, the king demanded that he should abjure Romanism or go into permanent banishment. He submitted to the Kirk in June 1597, and was restored to his estates in December. On the 7th of April 1599 he was created a marquess, and on the 9th of July, together with Lennox, appointed lieutenant of the north. He was treated with great favour by the king and was reconciled with Murray and Argyll. Doubts, however, as to the genuineness of his abjuration again troubled the Kirk. On the 10th of December 1606 he was confinedto Aberdeen, and on the 19th of March 1607 he was summoned before the privy council. Huntly thereupon went to England and appealed to James himself. He was excommunicated in 1608, and imprisoned in Stirling Castle till the 10th of December 1610, when he signed again the confession of faith. Accused of Romanist intrigues in 1616, he was ordered once more to subscribe the confession, which this time he refused to do; imprisoned at Edinburgh, he was liberated by James’s order on the 18th of June, and having joined the court in London was absolved from excommunication by Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury; which absolution, after some heartburnings at the archbishop’s interference, and after a further subscription to the confession by Huntly, was confirmed by the Kirk. At the accession of Charles I. Huntly lost much of his influence at court. He was deprived in 1630 of his heritable sheriffships of Aberdeen and Inverness. The same year a feud broke out between the Crichtons and Gordons, in the course of which Huntly’s second son, Lord Melgum, was burnt to death either by treachery or by accident, while being entertained in the house of James Crichton of Frendraught. For the ravaging of the lands of the Crichtons Huntly was held responsible, and having been summoned before the privy council in 1635 he was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle from December till June 1636. He left his confinement with shattered health, and died at Dundee while on his journey to Strathbogie on the 13th of June 1636, after declaring himself a Roman Catholic.
George Gordon, 2nd marquess of Huntly (d. 1649), his eldest son by Lady Henrietta, daughter of the duke of Lennox, was brought up in England as a Protestant, and created earl of Enzie by James I. On succeeding to his father’s title his influence in Scotland was employed by the king to balance that of Argyll in the dealings with the Covenanters, but without success. In the civil war he distinguished himself as a royalist, and in 1647 was excepted from the general pardon; in March 1649, having been captured and given up, he was beheaded by order of the Scots parliament at Edinburgh. His fourth sonCharles(d. 1681) was created earl of Aboyne in 1660; and the eldest sonLewiswas proclaimed 3rd marquess of Huntly by Charles II. in 1651. But the attainder was not reversed by parliament till 1661.
George Gordon, 4th marquess (1643-1716), served under Turenne, and was created 1st duke of Gordon by Charles II. in 1684 (seeGordon). On the death of the 5th duke of Gordon in 1836 the title of 9th marquess of Huntly passed to his relativeGeorge Gordon(1761-1853), son and heir of the 4th earl of Aboyne; who in 1815 was made a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Meldrum, his descendants being the 10th and 11th marquesses.
HUNTLY,a police burgh, burgh of barony and parish of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, capital of the district of Strathbogie. Pop. (1901) 4136. It lies at the confluence of the rivers Deveron and Bogie, 41 m. N.W. of Aberdeen on the Great North of Scotland Railway. It is a market town and the centre of a large agricultural district, its chief industries including agricultural implement-making, hosiery weaving, weaving of woollen cloth, and the manufacture of lamps and boots. Huntly Castle, half a mile to the north, now in ruins, was once a fortalice of the Comyns. From them it passed in the 14th century to the Gordons, by whom it was rebuilt. It was blown up in 1594, but was restored in 1602. It gradually fell into disrepair, some of its stones being utilized in the building of Huntly Lodge, the residence of the widow of the “last” duke of Gordon, who (in 1840) founded the adjoining Gordon schools to his memory. The Standing Stones of Strathbogie in Market Square have offered a permanent puzzle to antiquaries.
HUNTSMAN, BENJAMIN(1704-1776), English inventor and steel-manufacturer, was born in Lincolnshire in 1704. His parents were Germans. He started business as a clock, lock and tool maker at Doncaster, and attained a considerable local reputation for scientific knowledge and skilled workmanship. He also practised surgery in an experimental fashion, and was frequently consulted as an oculist. Finding that the bad quality of the steel then available for his products seriously hampered him, he began to experiment in steel-manufacture, first at Doncaster, and subsequently at Handsworth, near Sheffield, whither he removed in 1740 to secure cheaper fuel for his furnaces. After several years’ trials he at last produced a satisfactory cast steel, purer and harder than any steel then in use. The Sheffield cutlery manufacturers, however, refused to buy it, on the ground that it was too hard, and for a long time Huntsman exported his whole output to France. The growing competition of imported French cutlery made from Huntsman’s cast-steel at length alarmed the Sheffield cutlers, who, after vainly endeavouring to get the exportation of the steel prohibited by the British government, were compelled in self-defence to use it. Huntsman had not patented his process, and its secret was discovered by a Sheffield ironfounder, who, according to a popular story, obtained admission to Huntsman’s works in the disguise of a tramp. Benjamin Huntsman died in 1776, his business being subsequently greatly developed by his son, William Huntsman (1733-1809).