Your faithful and sincere humble servant,

H. HUNT.




MEMOIRS

OF HENRY HUNT.



I was born at Widdington Farm, in the parish of Upavon, in the county of
Wilts, on the 6th day of Nov. 1773, and am descended from as ancient and
respectable a family as any in that county, my forefather having arrived
in England with, and attended William the Conqueror, as a colonel in that
army, with which he successfully invaded this country. He became possessed
of very considerable estates in the counties of Wilts and Somerset, which
passed from father to son, down to the period of the civil wars in the
reign of Charles the First, when, in consequence of the tyrannical
government of that weak and wicked prince, _resistance became a duty_;
and, at length, after having by the means of _corrupt judges and packed
juries_, not only amerced and incarcerated, but caused to be executed many
of the wisest, bravest, and most patriotic men of the age, the tyrant was
ultimately brought to justice, and forfeited his head upon a scaffold,
having first been compelled to sign the death warrant for his favourite,
Lord Strafford[1]. When the commonwealth was established, and Cromwell
declared Lord Protector, my great great grandfather, colonel Thomas Hunt,
who was in possession of those estates in Wiltshire, unfortunately took a