A graduate of Dartmouth, Hunt served as a trustee of Vermont's Middlebury College, where Hunt family members had been early benefactors.

Hunt was the son of Jonathan Hunt and Lavinia (Swan) Hunt.
His father was born in Massachusetts and was an early pioneer and land speculator in Vermont.
He served as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from 1794–1796.
Hunt's uncle was composer and poet Timothy Swan, and his aunt was married to U.S. Congressman Lewis R. Morris.

Hunt married Jane Maria Leavitt of Suffield, Connecticut.
She was part of the New England Dwight family which was heavily involved in the shipping business and in the purchase of the Western Reserve.
Jane's father, Thaddeus Leavitt, was a successful merchant whose clipper ships traded with the West Indies.
He invented an early cotton gin and was one of the principal purchasers of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio.

Hunt and his wife Jane had five children: artist Jane Maria Hunt, physician Jonathan Hunt, painter William Morris Hunt, architect Richard Morris Hunt and early photographer and New York attorney Leavitt Hunt.
Following Hunt's death, his wife took their children to Geneva, Paris and Rome for an extended Grand Tour that stretched into a dozen years.
The Hunt children were able to study the arts in European academies and become part of an American expatriate community in Europe.
Four of Hunt's children returned to America.
The fifth, his namesake son Jonathan, remained in Paris, where he studied medicine at the University of Paris and subsequently practiced medicine until his early death, a suicide in 1874. (
Jonathan Hunt's son William Morris Hunt also committed suicide, at the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire.)
Hunt's nephew was Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt.
A graduate of Dartmouth, Hunt served as a trustee of Vermont's Middlebury College, where Hunt family members had been early benefactors.
Hunt was the son of Jonathan Hunt and Lavinia (Swan) Hunt. His father was born in Massachusetts and was an early pioneer and land speculator in Vermont. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from 1794–1796. Hunt's uncle was composer and poet Timothy Swan, and his aunt was married to U.S. Congressman Lewis R. Morris.
Hunt married Jane Maria Leavitt of Suffield, Connecticut. She was part of the New England Dwight family which was heavily involved in the shipping business and in the purchase of the Western Reserve. Jane's father, Thaddeus Leavitt, was a successful merchant whose clipper ships traded with the West Indies. He invented an early cotton gin and was one of the principal purchasers of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio.
Hunt and his wife Jane had five children: artist Jane Maria Hunt, physician Jonathan Hunt, painter William Morris Hunt, architect Richard Morris Hunt and early photographer and New York attorney Leavitt Hunt. Following Hunt's death, his wife took their children to Geneva, Paris and Rome for an extended Grand Tour that stretched into a dozen years. The Hunt children were able to study the arts in European academies and become part of an American expatriate community in Europe. Four of Hunt's children returned to America. The fifth, his namesake son Jonathan, remained in Paris, where he studied medicine at the University of Paris and subsequently practiced medicine until his early death, a suicide in 1874. (Jonathan Hunt's son William Morris Hunt also committed suicide, at the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire.) Hunt's nephew was Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt.
Jonathan Hunt (Vermont congressman)