Nathaniel Albert Hunt

A carte-de-visite portrait of Nathaniel Albert Hunt, seen here while as student at Cambridge. He is dressed as he appeared for a production of the Amateur Dramatic Club, founded by F.C. Burnand in 1855.

Born on 16 April 1841, Nathaniel Albert Hunt was the second son of William Hunt of Bath. Following his education at a private school in Bath and at Giessen University in Germany, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, on 4 June 1863. On 27 March 1865 he was initiated into the Freemasons at the Isaac Newton University Lodge. He graduated BA in 1867. On 14 November 1865 he was admitted to the Inner Temple and was called to the bar on 30 April 1869. He subsequently practised as a barrister on the Western Circuit before ill-health necessitated his early retirement.

On the night of the 1871 census he was one of several barristers staying at the Royal Hotel on College Green in Bristol.

When the census was taken in 1881 he living at the home of his father in Bath at 72 Pulteney Street. He gave ‘Barrister-at-law, not practising’ as his profession. His father described himself as ‘Licentiate of the Co of Apothecaries & Alderman.’

Nathaniel Albert Hunt died, aged only 42, at Sevier House in Leamington on 7 November 1883. He left an estate valued at £860.

‘Our readers will all learn with deep regret of the death, yesterday week, of Mr N.A. Hunt, son of Mr Alderman Hunt, which occurred at Leamington. The deceased, a barrister by profession and a member of the Western Circuit, was man of exceeding promise, but he as been laid aside by ill health for many years, and lived in complete retirement with his father. Before his illness, he was a conspicuous and welcome figure in private society, and well-known there and beyond its limits as an amateur actor of great natural ability. At one time the direction of our public amateur theatrical was in his hand, and under his management they fully maintained the excellence and popularity by which they had long been distinguished’ (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 15 November 1883).

Photographed by the Farren Brothers of Cambridge.